All For The Love Of Beth, Part Two, A Sequel
by Whistler Nights
Summary: Shelby is killed suddenly. Finn asks Rachel to marry him and adopt Beth. It's a bumpy road for the instant family when one is in New York and the other is left behind in Lima.
1. Chapter 1

**All For The Love of Beth, Part Two- A Sequel**

(**A/N** If you hadn't read _**For the Love of Beth, **__**Part ONE**_, please do. It will make this story make a lot more sense.)

(**Disclaimer:** I do not own Glee or any of the characters. I do not own Skype.)

**-/-**

It was graduation day for the McKinley class of 2012. Finn had looked forward to this day since he first stepped foot into McKinley High in the fall of 2008 as a freshman. He was dressed in his cap and gown along with the other seniors. They were waiting in line in the hall outside the auditorium for the graduation march to begin playing. Miss Pillsbury had shushed them to be quiet for about the twentieth time as dignitaries were being introduced inside the auditorium to the anxiously awaiting parents and guests.

Finn looked down beside him to the woman who was holding his hand tightly as they stood in line alphabetically. It was his wife of six months, Rachel Berry Hudson. She smiled at him with those enormous brown eyes and placed a finger over her lips reminding him to be quiet. All he wanted to do was to bend down and kiss her, but Miss P. had already warned the line of cap and gowned seniors that the sooner everyone cooperated, the sooner they could march into the auditorium.

Four years ago Finn had sat in this auditorium that looked so huge for the first time. He remembered it like it was yesterday. He and his mom were there for freshman orientation. She was listening closely to Principal Figgins, but he couldn't sit still. He was stretching his neck looking for friends that he had known in middle school. Near the front sat his old buddy Puck with his mother, but Puck had a new haircut. The sides were buzzed leaving a Mohawk down the middle. Carole looked at Finn and gave him the, "Don't you even think about a haircut like that" look. Dave Karofsky had also been there with his parents along with other students that he had gone to middle school with.

That August day four years ago seemed like yesterday, but now Finn was preparing to cross that stage for the last time. So much had happened in those four short years. As he stood there in line tightly holding onto Rachel's hand trying to be still and quiet, the last four years suddenly began playing out in his head.

He entered high school that August four years ago feeling like a small fish in a big pond. He tired out for junior varsity football, and because of his height and throwing arm, he made quarterback. When his sophomore year came along he was bumped up to the varsity squad because they didn't have a quarterback that could hit the broad side of a barn. Puck had always been Finn's receiver so he was bumped up with him to the varsity squad.

Finn remembered feeling like the BMOC quarterbacking the varsity team as a sophomore. It was during this time that a female blond transfer student introduced herself to him. She also felt like a BMOC since she had made head cheerleader as a sophomore. Her name was Quinn and she informed him that it written in the stars that the starting quarterback and the head cheerleader were destined to date each other. Finn wasn't so sure about that, but it sounded like a good idea to him. She was easy on the eyes, and she could only help his rep.

It was during that fall that his Spanish teacher found some weed stashed in his locker. Mr. Schuster offered to let Finn join the Glee club instead of being expelled and losing a possible football scholarship. During his very first Glee rehearsal Finn met Rachel. His first impressions were of a short, overachieving girl who talked way too much, used very big words, and clearly had a crush on him.

Now, standing in the graduating line waiting for commencement to begin Finn looked back on his sophomore year with bittersweet memories. His perfect girlfriend had cheated on him with his best friend and Beth had been the result. Beth was his little girl now, his and Rachel's. No matter how badly Quinn and Puck's betrayal had hurt him, Beth had made it better.

It was still unbelievable that Shelby had died in a plane crash during their junior year. Beth could have ended up in the foster care system, but he and Rachel had gotten married last Thanksgiving to keep that from happening. Beth's adoption had been finalized right after Valentine's Day. Finn now stood here waiting to graduate as husband and a father. He was husband to the most awesome woman in the whole world and daddy to the most perfect little girl. No, he had not envisioned that he would graduate with a wife and a daughter when he entered McKinley High four years ago. Most high school guys don't graduate with an instant family, but Rachel and Beth had made his life complete. He had also gained a step father and brother along the way, so life was just about perfect. Perfect except Rachel was leaving to start her college education in less than two weeks.

Snapping him out of his reminiscing and day dreaming, Miss Pillsbury made her way down the long line of red robed seniors telling them that it was time. The opening strands of the graduation march could be heard playing in the auditorium and everyone was standing waiting for their arrival.

Finn quickly turned behind him and gave Rachel a quick peck on the lips and a smile. "Break a leg," he whispered to Rachel. Rachel answered back, "I love you."

The line of graduating seniors finally moved forward, Artie Abrams lead the way followed alphabetically by Blaine Anderson. When Finn's turn came to enter the auditorium doors, Miss P. made him drop Rachel's hand as Rachel followed him alphabetically in line.

Immediately they spotted the Hummel/Hudson/Berry clans in the crowd. Beth was holding tightly to Carole's neck as she waved and shouted "Daddy, Mommy" to Finn and Rachel. Rachel had worked hard to get Beth to drop the two part of Mommietwo. The endearment had been too painful for Quinn. Kurt was lined up immediately behind Rachel and whispered to her, "Did you bring your own cheering section?"

The class of 2012 entered and when they were all at their seats, Miss P. motioned for them to sit down. To the side the McKinley faculty was seated with Mr. Schue seated on the end. He had saved a seat for Miss. Pillsbury. Finn could have sworn that he saw a tear slowly making its way down Mr. Schue's cheek as they marched in.

Principal Figgins addressed the audience and then introduced someone from the school board and then someone else important who gave the commencement speech followed by the valedictorian and the salutatorian speeches.

Finn really didn't hear any of it. He was holding Rachel's hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. Kurt was on her other side holding Rachel's other hand. Funny, those two were bitter rivals three years ago. Now Kurt was Rachel's best friend and his step brother. Finn felt a hint of jealous wash over him as he remember that Rachel would be leaving for New York in tens days and Kurt and Blaine would be starting college with her.

Finn was staying behind in Lima to attend the local community college and take care of Beth. Rachel would be home twice a month for the first year, as the judge had requested at Beth's adoption hearing. Finn still dreaded saying goodbye to her.

He knew in his heart that it was best for Beth. He and Beth would be joining her when Rachel graduated, but that seemed like a life time away. Rachel was going to take a full load of courses and attend the summer theater sessions to try and graduate from Juilliard in three years instead of four. It would be grueling. A musical, theater-arts degree demanded many long hours after classes ended. Finn had offered to join her in New York, but they had family and friends to help with Beth here in Lima and Finn could attend the community college and pull his grades up. Kurt and Blaine would be there to look after Rachel, but still he knew that he had many lonely days and nights ahead of him.

Finally it was Finn's turn to cross the stage and accept his diploma. It was music to his ears when he heard; "Rachel Berry Hudson" called out immediately after his name was called. He waited for Rachel and Kurt at the end of the stage behind the open curtains. "Congratulations, Mrs. Hudson," Finn whispered as he twirled her around out of sight of the audience.

"Please, no PDA's" Kurt said as he pretended to cover his eyes and ushered the couple back to their seats.

Soon, tassels were turned and mortar boards were thrown high into the air in jubilation. Finn pulled Rachel along as they made their way back out of the auditorium.

Later that afternoon, a celebratory graduation party was held in the Berry's backyard. All of the Berrys, Hudsons, and Hummels were there. The adults sat in the shade enjoying the cook-out while all of the teenagers played in the swimming pool. Everyone took turns playing with Beth and letting her enjoy the water.

"It's going to be lonely here without you this summer," Finn said softly to Rachel as they played under the diving board together.

"I know, I'm already missing you, but we'll see each other twice a month. At least you have Beth and this swimming pool; it's going to be as hot as hell in New York this summer. I expect you'll have Beth swimming like a fish by September. And we still have her second birthday party before I have to leave," Rachel smiled as she tried to dunk Finn in the water.

"Silly girl," Finn teased back. "Don't you know it useless to try and dunk me? My name is Finn for a reason."

On June 8th everyone gathered again in the Berry's backyard for Beth's second birthday party. Everyone from New Directions came including Quinn and Puck. Beth hadn't been told who they were, but Finn and Rachel wanted them to be part of her life and for Beth to know them.

"You're a better man than I am, and you're doing a great job with Beth," Puck said to Finn as the two turned hamburgers on the grill.

"I'm trying," Finn answered with a smile. "It's going to be tough without Rachel here 24/7, but Beth and I have the grandparents to help and Sam's mom is a great nanny. At least this year, I managed to come up with a better birthday gift than I did last year."

"What did you give her last year?" Puck asked.

"A football," Finn cringed.

"You're starting your football team out young?" Puck said with a smirk.

"You need eleven players to make a team, and one little girl doesn't make a team," Finn said as he shook his head.

"Knowing you and Rachel, you'll have a complete starting line-up and a second string by the time you're thirty," Puck teased his old quarterback.

"Whoa, you're getting ahead of yourself," Finn laughed. "I don't think I could talk Rachel into popping out ten kids. I don't know how I would feed ten more kids either."

"You've got a point, considering how much food that just you can put away," Puck laughed as he added cheese to the burgers.

Beth's second birthday party continued until dark when the little girl started getting sleepy. Rachel went to get Beth ready for bed, but Carole interrupted her.

"Sweetie, you stay here and spend some extra time with Finn and your friends. Nana can handle this." Carole said as she took Beth from Rachel's arms and headed into the Berry house.

Rachel thanked Carole and returned to her previous spot in the hammock with Finn. The rest of the evening was spent listening to their friends retelling stories from the last three years in New Directions. The two continued to swing slowly back and forth in the hammock with Rachel tucked under Finn's arm. Finn would kiss the top of Rachel's head ever so often, and each time he did, she tried to snuggle just a little bit closer to his tanned chest.

Two days later Finn woke up before dawn on June 10th with a feeling of deep dread in his stomach. He would be saying goodbye to Rachel at the airport today. He rolled over and listened to Rachel's rhythmic breathing in the dark. Without even thinking about it he began to kiss the back of her neck and her shoulder. Slowly she stirred and turned in his arms to face him.

"What time is it?" she asked never opening her eyes.

"It's a little after four," Finn whispered back as he kissed her face and neck.

"Aren't you tired from last night?" Rachel asked yawning. "We did the deed twice before we went to sleep."

"I'll never get tired of loving you," Finn said as he pulled back a little.

"I'm just going to miss you so much when I go to bed tonight without you," Finn confessed.

"You're only going to miss me half as much as I will be missing you tonight," Rachel whispered back in the dark.

The two inched closer and Finn totally enveloped her in his embrace before he kissed her forehead and said softly in her ear, "Rach, make love to me."

Rachel pulled back from the embrace and pushed Finn onto his back in the pillows. She would be back home in two weeks, but she wanted him to know just how much she loved him until she was back to remind him.

At the airport later that day, the Hummels, Hudsons and Berrys were assembled to say their goodbyes. Blaine said goodbye to his parents while Kurt said goodbye to his dad and Carole.

Finn carried Beth with one arm and wrapped the other around Rachel's shoulders. When the moment came, Finn kissed her one final time, and said "I love you, break a leg." Rachel smiled and said, "And I love you, so much." Kissing Finn and Beth goodbye again, Rachel along with Kurt and Blaine soon disappeared into one of the lines for the security checks.

Finn turning to leave when he could no longer see Rachel in line, Beth patted Finn face and asked, "Mommy be back?"

"Yes, Mommy will be back in two weeks," Finn answered holding up two fingers.

"Beth held up two little fingers and repeated, "two veks."

Finn was heading for the parking lot when Burt caught up with him.

"Mine if I carry her?" Burt asked Finn.

"Sure," Finn answered as the families made their way back out to their cars that were parked so far away.

Later that evening Rachel called and Finn almost dropped his phone trying to get it open so fast.

"Hi Baby," Rachel gushed into her phone. "We made it to the Big Apple. The painters haven't finished painting our apartment yet so we're staying in a hotel tonight. How are you and Beth doing?"

"We're doing okay," Finn beamed. "Beth's still up; would you like to talk to her for a minute?"

"Why's she still up?" Rachel asked concerned.

"She and I took a long nap together in the hammock outback this afternoon. I also wanted her to talk to you before she went to bed," Finn confessed.

"Okay, just don't make a habit of letting her stay up late. If we get into the apartment tomorrow, I'll set up my web cam and we can Skype."

"She going to love that," Finn smiled. "She's already asking for you. She wants to know how long 'two veks' are."

"Oh I miss you two so much already. Please ask Daddy if you can borrow his video camera, I don't want to miss a single one of her mile stones," Rachel sobbed softly.

"Don't cry Babe; the four of us have got you covered. You're going to be watching videos of Beth for days on end," Finn chuckled.

Handing his cell phone to Beth, Beth almost shouted, "Hi Mommy! Mommy come back in two veks! Me and Daddy swepted in the hammock! Daddy snores!"

"Does Daddy snore?" Rachel asked Beth

"Yep, he snores big," Beth answered.

Handing the phone back to Finn, Finn asked Rachel, "Are my two best girls plotting against me?"

"It's no secret that you snore, Finn. But it's a soft sexy kind of snore. It lets me know that you're there in the dark," Rachel answered. "I hope that I can get to sleep tonight without you being here beside me."

"Me too," Finn answered softly. "I'm going to snuggle up with your pillow and pretend. The sheets still smell like you so I may not change them until you come back home."

"Oh Finn, that's just gross," Rachel laughed.

"Well how about it if I don't change your pillow case?" Will that do?" Finn asked.

"Yes, but when you go to bed tonight you're going to need to get a new pillow case out of the linen closet for yourself. I stole yours when you weren't looking this morning," Rachel confessed.

Finn and Rachel talked for a few more minutes before he handed his phone to Hiram and Leroy so they could visit with their daughter.

Finn headed up the stairs carrying Beth with a new story book that Rachel had left for her.

Beth and Finn snuggled into the big rocking chair, and he opened the book to read the bedtime story. Inside the book, Finn discovered that it was an audio book. Rachel had recorded herself reading the story for Beth. As the sound of Rachel's voice filled the room Finn knew that this was a book that he and Beth would both have to share every night while Rachel was away at Juilliard.

-/-

And now begins the story of Finn, Rachel, and Beth. I hope that you have enjoyed the opening chapter of All For the Love of Beth, Part Two, A Sequel.

BMOC means Big Man On Campus

Reviews are pure inspiration. Until next time, Whistler Nights.


	2. Chapter 2 Single Dad

**Single Dad – Chapter Two**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine had left on Sunday, June 10th. Now it was Monday and Finn's first day as a dad without Rachel. Rachel would be back in two weeks, but Finn began to wonder, "Is this what being a single parent feels like?"

It was also Finn's first day of summer classes at Rhodes State College. Lima's local community college. He had taken the placement tests earlier and was none too happy that he would have to take two zero-hundred entry level courses. The courses were prep courses and wouldn't count toward graduation. One of the courses was Introduction to College Writing. The other was Introduction to College Math. Finn decided to take both of them during the summer session so he could get them out of the way before the fall semester started. One class started at eight in the morning and the other started at twelve noon with a block of time between the two. It was too much time to waste and not enough time to go over and work at Burt's so he decided to pick up an extra class between the other two. Scanning the schedule Finn had found the perfect class. Introduction to Music Theory 101.

Things had started early that Monday morning. Finn was running late and Beth was cranky. Hiram and Leroy had to be in court early, but thank goodness for Sharon Evans. She was at the Berry house before seven and took charge. With Beth on her hip, she had all three of them out the door on time.

Finn was sitting in his first class, Introduction to College Writing when a familiar blond mop of hair walked in. It was Sam Evans. Finn waved for him to grab the seat beside him.

"Hey man, I didn't know that you were going to school here?" Finn asked.

"Well it's partly your fault. My mom saw all of your college brochures laid out on your counter. She said that I had to either work or go to school this summer," Sam complained. "I haven't been able to find a decent summer job, so here I am. I didn't do to well on the placement tests so I have Introduction to College Reading for Content and Introduction to College Math after this class."

"I'll be joining you in the math class later, but I'm taking Introduction to Music Theory after this class. It's the only one that I'm getting credit for," Finn said rolling his eyes.

"I can help you with that," Sam beamed. "I can teach you how to read music."

"Well, I can help you too," Finn smiled. "I'm not going to be able to work as many hours as Burt needs me. Maybe we can split the job. That would still give me time to be with Beth in the evenings and time for homework. I'll put in a good word for you with Burt."

"That would be great," Sam smiled. "With gas prices the way they are, I'm not even breaking even delivering pizzas. I'm going to school here on grant money."

Finn finished his three classes for the day at 1:30 and headed over to Burt's.

"I'm sure glad that you're here," Burt shouted as Finn ran though the grease pit door and into the back to change into his work clothes. "I have two tire rotations and an oil change waiting on you. Sharon called; she wants you pick up some diapers for Beth on the way home."

"I'll be so glad when Beth is out of diapers," Finn groaned.

"Beth is two years old now. Isn't it time that you started potty training her?" Burt asked as he wiped the grease from his hands.

"Potty training?" Finn asked a little surprised. "Is that like paper training?"

"I can tell that you're an only child," Burt chuckled to himself. "Paper training is what you do to a puppy. Toddlers have to be potty trained. You know, taught to use the bathroom."

"Where do I begin?" Finn asked.

"Have you bought a potty chair?" Burt asked.

"No, all that we have is a regular potty, I mean toilet," Finn answered embarrassed.

"Well the smart thing would be to get Sharon to get one and let Sharon start the training. She's had three kids, she should know what to do," Burt chuckled trying hard not to laugh at Finn.

"Burt, can I ask you another question?" Sharon has a son, Sam, who was in New Directions with me and Kurt. His father lost his job, and he now works as a night watchman. All five of them are living in one motel room since they lost their house. Do you think you might have a job for Sam here? I can split my hours with him if it would help. I'll teach him what he doesn't know," Finn asked as he read the work orders.

"That's very generous of you Finn. I remember Sam, and Kurt spoke well of him. Have him come by, and I'll give him a try-out. I'm always willing to help out anyone who will give me a day's work for a day's pay," Burt answered. "Now you get to work on that blue Honda. The work order is on the board."

Finn left work soon after Burt closed the shop at five. He tried to get the grease off of him, but he still had grease under his fingernails when he arrived home.

"Daddy," Beth shrilled as Finn came through the door carrying his books and a big bag of diapers.

"Hey Beth, how has my big girl been today? Have you been good for Sharon?" Finn asked as he scooped Beth up.

Beth nodded as she wrapped her arms around Finn's neck.

"Beth is always good, aren't you Beth?" Sharon commented as she gathered her things to leave for the day. "There is vegetable lasagna in the oven and the salad is in the refrigerator. If you don't need anything else, I'll be on my way."

"Sharon, I do have a big favor to ask. Do you think you could start Beth's potty training? Rachel is gone so much, and I don't have a clue," Finn confessed.

"Sure, I'll be glad too. Do you have a potty chair?" Sharon asked.

"I didn't even know that there was such a thing until Burt told me. I can give you some money if you'll pick one up." Finn offered.

"I'll be glad too. Beth and I can go tomorrow, and I'll let her help me pick one out. That will make it special for her."

"Thanks Sharon, I never had little brothers or sisters, unless you count Kurt. Kurt was already potty trained when we got him. All of this is new to me," Finn said in total honesty.

"Don't worry," Sharon laughed. "I'll get you and Beth started on the basics."

"Oh Sharon, I almost forgot. Tell Sam to bring some old clothes with him to school tomorrow. Burt's willing to give him a try-out down at his tire store. It will mostly be oil changes and tire rotations, and Burt will provide the coveralls," Finn smiled.

"Finn, thank you so much, Sam needs something to do other than deliver pizzas, baby-sit, and go to school. I know he will do a good job for Burt," Sharon thanked Finn.

Later that night Finn was just getting Beth dressed for bed when his phone rang. It was Rachel.

"Hi Babe, It's taken the last hour, but Blaine and Kurt think they have my web cam up and running on my computer if you want to turn yours on."

Soon Finn was looking at Rachel smiling face with Beth sitting on his lap.

"Look Beth," Finn said to the bewildered toddler, "It's Mommy!"

Beth's eyes grew large as she saw Rachel talking to her on the screen. She looked at Finn and then she crawled up to the screen and touched it. Then she tired to look behind the screen to see if Rachel was behind Finn's lap top.

"She thinks the rest of you is behind the screen," Finn laughed. "Like those cartoons that have the moose head on the wall and the rest of the moose is in the next room."

"Finn Hudson, are you comparing me to a moose?" Rachel asked in mock disgust.

"No never," Finn laughed. "Beth, it's almost your bedtime so you should talk to Mommy before I hand you over to G-Dad and G-Daddy. Mommy and I have a lot to talk about."

Rachel and Beth talked for a few minutes before Finn let the granddads take her for a bedtime story.

"I don't know who enjoyed the bedtime story the most last night, me or Beth. That was really thoughtful of you to record an audio book for her," Finn smiled at Rachel's image on the screen.

"I just wanted her to have something special for her first night away from me. I'll record another one for her when I have the chance. The boys and I finally got the keys to this apartment this morning and it has been an all day feat. I made them stop long enough to help me hook up my web cam so I could see you and Beth tonight. How is she?" Rachel asked.

"She's doing better than all of us. No classes, no work. Just naps, playing, and eating. Man, I could do that all day. Burt suggested that we start potty training. Beth and Sharon are going to the baby store tomorrow and pick out a potty chair. I know it's going to be pink with stars all over it," Finn laughed.

"I can't help it if our daughter has discriminating tastes," Rachel scoffed. "With Kurt as her uncle she can't help but be a trend setter," Rachel defended.

"I can't wait to tell Kurt that his fashion sense applies to potty chairs," Finn laughed again.

"How was your first day of classes?" Rachel asked trying to change the subject.

"Actually pretty good. Sam's in my writing and math class. I had some time between classes on my schedule so I pick up Introduction to Music Theory. Sam's going to help me learn to read music," Finn smiled proudly.

"Finn that'll be great! Now when you write your own songs you can set them to music yourself. I'm so proud of you."

"I have a new song bumping around in my brain right now. If I can get the rest of my homework done I may work on it later."

"What the song about?" Rachel asked.

"Missing you. What did you think? The idea came to me in a dream last night. I dreamed that you and I were back at McKinley at the Valentine's Dance. It was so real I could smell your perfume and feel you in my arms. Rach, you've only been gone a day, but I think about you almost every moment," Finn admitted.

"Me too. We have just about killed ourselves trying to get this apartment together today, but you were on my mind all day. I was wondering how your classes went and what you and Beth were doing without me," Rachel sighed.

"How is the new apartment? Turn the camera around so I can see," Finn asked.

"Finn, I don't know. There's something about this apartment that doesn't feel right. It has a funny smell to it," Rachel said wrinkling up her nose and making a face.

"Didn't they just paint it and put down new carpet? You must be smelling the paint fumes or carpet," Finn offered.

"No it doesn't smell like paint or new carpet. It smells like someone or something died in here," Rachel said wrinkling her nose again.

"Maybe some poor mouse was trapped in there after the last tenants moved out. Open the windows and let the place air out," Finn suggested.

"We've had them open all day, and not because of the smell. The AC is broke and it's a three story walk up.

"Do either Blaine or Kurt smell it?"

"It's not as bad in their room, plus those two can't keep their hands off of each other long enough to notice anything,"

"Please don't paint a picture for me. You've burned an image in my brain already," Finn asked.

"Oh, they're okay. I know if you were here I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you either," Rachel giggled.

"Yeah, if you were here, I know what we would be doing right now," Finn said raising one eyebrow suggestively.

"No we wouldn't because I would make sure that you were working on your homework," Rachel teased back.

Finn, I do miss you so much. Someday all of this will be worth it. When we both have our careers, and the three of us will be together every day."

"I know Babe, it's just hard now, but Beth has a family who loves her. Just keep thinking about how much she and I love you, and this time apart will fly by. Someday you'll be telling stories about your smelly apartment, and the two gay guys that you lived with to our friends," Finn chuckled.

"I really hope so but right now this bedroom just feels and smells kind of creepy. I really need some sleep and sleeping without you in hard enough. How did you sleep last night?"

"It took awhile to get to sleep, but I used your pillow, and then I had that wonderful dream about us. I hope I have that dream about me and you again tonight. How did you sleep last night?"

"We were in the hotel last night. I finally went to sleep sometime after midnight, but at least the hotel had AC and didn't smell like this. This is a furnished apartment and Blaine and Kurt took the room with the queen size bed. I have the room with the full size bed in it. I hope you and Beth can squeeze in here when you come to visit me," Rachel hoped.

"We'll put Beth in the living room, and I can sleep anywhere as long as I'm with you," Finn said softly.

"I should go now," Rachel interrupted. "Kurt's back with a vegan pizza. I'm meeting with my advisor tomorrow, and then I'm going shopping for some real food. I love you so much."

"I love you too. Call us same time tomorrow and Beth and I will be waiting," Finn smiled putting his fingers on Rachel's image on the computer screen.

Rachel, Blaine and Kurt ate their pizza on the fire escape outside of Rachel's window. It was a little cooler out there, and the air didn't have that death smell to it. Only asphalt and car exhaust unlike the natural smell of Ohio.

Once they had finished their meal Rachel went back to organizing her room. Out of curiosity she stopped and went to a corner and pulled up the carpet. The smell was even stronger. Under the carpet she found old hardwood floors but they were stained with a deep reddish brown splatter. "Could this be blood?" Rachel thought to herself. "Did someone die in this room? Was someone killed in this room?" The more carpet she pulled up the more spatter she found.

-/-

Until next time, thank you for all of the awesome reviews. Like all of you who also write Fanfiction, the reviews are inspiration! Thank you again, Whistler Nights


	3. Chapter 3 Seeing Double

**Seeing Double – Chapter 3**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

Rachel tried to go to sleep that first night in the apartment in New York, but the smell and the open window kept her awake. The AC felt more like heat so they had all of the windows open hoping for a cool breeze. What breeze that could be found only fluttered the curtains and made ghost like shadows on the walls. The flashing green and red neon sign across the street didn't help either.

Afraid to go to sleep, Rachel tried to squeeze in bed with Kurt and Blaine, but Kurt only pushed her into the floor.

"No Rachel, go sleep with Finn," Kurt moaned half asleep.

"I wish I could go sleep with Finn," Rachel thought to herself. "I would feel safe with him even in a place like this."

In the living room, she tired to get comfortable on the couch, but sleep wouldn't come.

Frustrated she opened up her lap top and tried to do a little research on her building. In the crime reports she came up empty. What she could find were just old reports of petty crimes. There were no reports of any murders much to her relief.

When morning came, she found herself slumped over the computer with a killer backache. Thankfully Kurt and Blaine weren't up yet so she made her way into the one dingy bathroom for a hot shower.

The water sputtered and gurgled. At first it came out a rusty color. The water did clear up, but it wasn't hot. Luke warm was the best that it would do. The luke-warm water actually felt good considering the AC was non-existent.

Rachel dried her hair, dressed and then made plans for the day. She had an appointment to meet with her advisor at Juilliard at ten. Then she would find a vegan friendly market in the neighborhood and buy all the air fresheners that they had. Lastly, she was going to track down the building superintendent. She was going to find out what was wrong with the AC and the water, but most important, she wanted to know what had happened in their apartment.

Finn's day started off better. He had Beth up and fed before Sharon arrived. He had laid money out on the counter the night before for Sharon and Beth to go shopping for a potty chair.

His classes went smoothly and Music Theory was definitely his favorite of the three classes that he was taking.

At Burt's Sam fell into the rhythm of the shop like he had worked there for years. Burt gave Sam the tire rotations and oil changes while moving Finn to tire mounting and balancing.

When Finn arrived home that night, Beth met him at the door.

"Daddy, Daddy, I gots a new potty! It's pink!" Beth happily told Finn as she drug him into the downstairs bathroom to see this new piece of equipment. Finn was a little taken back when he saw it. It looked like a miniature pink throne, fit for a princess.

"I guess we really can call the bathroom the throne room now," Finn laughed when he turned to Sharon.

"Finn, here's your change," Sharon said offering Finn the left over money. "We actually bought two of them so we wouldn't have to run up and down the stairs at a moment's notice. Beth picked this model out the moment she saw it."

"Knowing my daughter, I can believe that she picked out a pink throne to do her business in. She's so much like Rachel."

"It pays a song," Beth told Finn in her best baby talk.

"Yes, when Beth is successful it rewards her with a song," Sharon informed Finn.

"Oh great, a talking pink potty throne for my princess. But you've got to use it to make it sing right?" Finn asked Beth.

Beth nodded her head yes. "It pays Tinkle, tinkle little star," Beth told Finn.

"Don't you mean Twinkle, twinkle little star?" Finn asked.

"No, its tinkle not twinkle," Sharon laughed. "Here, I'll show you." Sharon took a bathroom cup from the dispenser, filled it in the bathroom sink and then poured the water into the potty chair. The chair immediately started singing, "Tinkle, tinkle little star. How I wonder how dry you are?"

"I can't wait until Rachel gets home to see this. I can just see the look on her face now," Finn laughed with Sharon.

Back in New York Rachel had finally found the building's superintendent at home in his first floor apartment. His apartment was cool and his name was Ian Montgomery. Rachel was shocked at his appearance. He looked like a forty year old version of Finn. Tall, good looking, with only one dimple, and whiskey colored eyes. His hair was longer than Finn's and had the same hint of soft curls. But his hair color was more salt than pepper.

"Ms. Hudson, nice to meet you," the superintendent greeted Rachel with a big one sided smile. "My name is Ian Montgomery, but you can call me Monty. How was your first night in the Big Apple? I hope that your apartment was to your liking."

"Actually, our AC is blowing warm air, and the hot water never gets hot," Rachel complained.

"Ms. Hudson, that's one of the trade-offs in living in an historic building like this one. This building is over a hundred years old and the HVAC is older than you are. By the time the AC gets to the third floor it's more like heat. The opposite is true in the winter," Monty informed Rachel while sizing her up and down. "This building hasn't always been an apartment building. It's been a lot of other things over the years before it was converted into an apartment building. Don't you just love all of the old brick walls and the hardwood floors?"

"Yes, the brick walls are nice, but can you tell me why our apartment has a decomposition smell to it?" Rachel asked.

"Decomposition? I don't have a clue what you're taking about! I take great pride in keeping this building up to code!" Monty replied sounding insulted.

"It smells like something has died in there," Rachel answered.

"Well I do use a lot of rat poison in this building. Maybe one of the little buggers died inside your wall. You won't notice a thing when the weather turns cold," Monty informed her aloofly.

"But its hot now, our AC is blowing warm air, the water is rusty, and the place smells like death." What are we supposed to do?" Rachel asked growing impatient.

"Like I said, that's the trade offs in living in a charming old building like this one. Didn't you check things out before you signed your lease? You're close to Juilliard, and I did put new carpet and some new furniture in your apartment before you moved in. Can't you be happy with those amenities? You Juilliard girls are all alike, picky, picky, picky."

"No my dads found this place as a sub-let on the internet. We did it all on line and through the mail, but this place is almost unlivable," Rachel said growing irritated.

"You cow-town girls come to New York with your big expectations and big dreams! I had my dreams once myself. I auditioned for Juilliard, but they wouldn't have me. I dreamed of being a headliner on Broadway, but they laughed in my face. I had the looks and a decent voice. What I didn't have was the big powerhouse voice and the smooth dance moves!" Monty continued to sneered at her.

"You signed a lease so you're stuck here. I'll see if I can get anymore AC up to the third floor, but in the mean time you'll have to deal with it!"

He then closed his door in Rachel's face leaving her standing in the hallway. She was flabbergasted with Monty's rudeness and his lack of concern for her problems, but the fact that he was the spitting image of Finn out weighted all of that in her mind at the moment. She turned and ran back upstairs where she found Blaine and Kurt looking at old copies of fashion magazines.

"You guys are coming with me now!" Rachel demanded pulling on Blaine's arm.

"Rachel, what is it? Can't it wait? We're trying to find an article on Alexander McQueen," Kurt protested.

"No, you absolutely have to see this now!" Rachel again demanded while dragging Blaine to the stairs.

The trio soon rang the building superintendent's door bell.

"Ms. Hudson, what do you want now? I was on my way to the basement to see if I could do something about getting more AC to the third floor," Monty complained openly to Rachel.

"Kurt, Blaine, I want you to meet our building superintendent, Ian Montgomery, but we can call him Monty," Rachel said as she introduced the three men to each other.

Kurt and Blaine were as speechless as Rachel was when she first met Monty.

"Do you have a twin, or a brother, or a son, or a clone?" Kurt asked Monty unable to believe what he was seeing. "You look just like an older version of my brother," Kurt stammered.

"What Kurt means is that you look just like someone that we know in Lima, Ohio," Blaine tried to explain to the building super.

"What they're both trying to say is that you look enough like my husband to be his dad. Do you have any children?" Rachel asked.

"No, I don't have any children. My late wife and I never got around to having children, and I never remarried," Monty said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "But with eight million people on the planet, the odds are good that some of us look alike. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can get any more cool air out of that old HVAC unit in the basement for you."

Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt made their way back up to their apartment still astounded that Monty and Finn looked so much alike.

"Except for twenty years and Monty's Bronx accent, they could be twins," Kurt surmised. "We have to get Finn here, this is just too uncanny."

The three were sitting in the living room talking about the resemblance when all of a sudden the AC kicked in and they were surrounded with a blast of cool air.

After midnight when Rachel was lying in bed the cool air suddenly cut off. Too late to go down stairs and bang on Monty's door, she and the boys were forced to open the windows again. Having her window open to the fire escape made her feel vulnerable. With the temperature in her room starting to rise, the odor of death was became more prominent once again.

-/-

Until chapter 4 please keep reviewing! Thank you for all of the kind reviews and for adding my story to your alerts list. Until next time, Whistler Nights


	4. Chapter 4 The Look Alike

**The Look-A-Like - Chapter 4**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. I do not own Skype.)

Wednesday was Rachel's first day of classes. She woke to find that the AC was once again back on.

"Fine," she said to herself, "Where were you at one AM when it was like an oven in here, and I was sweating like a race horse?" She made a note to herself to go out and buy a box fan like Blaine and Kurt had done the day before. At least she would have a back up when the finicky AC decided to stop working.

Standing in the shower washing off the dried sweat she ran over last night's call with Finn and Beth in her mind. Beth has been so full of herself telling Rachel about her new potty and going to the grocery store with Sharon. Just the memory of Beth's exuberance brought an instant smile to her face. Finn had told her about his classes and working with Sam down at Burt's.

Sam was working out well, and he was a big help with Finn's music theory. Between tire changes, Sam was already teaching Finn how to find the major chords.

She had let Finn and Beth do most of the talking and had neglected to tell him about his look-a-like in New York. She also hadn't told him about the problems with the apartment. At the time they were talking the AC was pour out cool air, and she thought that problem was over.

Rachel made a note to herself to track down Monty again and have a word with him about the sporadic AC on the third floor. She also was going to try and meet some of her neighbors. Was everyone on the third floor having these kinds of problems or was it just their apartment? Whether or not he resembled Finn, Ian "Monty" Montgomery was going to find out that she was not some cow-town girl that he could brush aside. Rachel Berry Hudson was a force to be reckoned with!

Drying her hair and dressing quickly, she hoped to catch Monty before he took off to who knows where. To be the live-in building superintendent, he was proving to be never around when you needed him.

Banging on Monty's door at eight AM, no one answered. Rachel had wanted to come downstairs to bang on his door during the sweltering night before, but the dimly lit staircase had changed her mind. She didn't want to be late for her first class at Juilliard so she decided to slid a note under his door. Turning to leave, she whirled around and ran head first into the chest of the six foot three inch figure that she had been looking for. It was apparent that Monty had been out all night, and he reeked of alcohol.

"Monty, where have you been? We just about roasted in that apartment again last night. I tried your cell but it went straight to voice mail."

"Can't a working class guy enjoy an Off Broadway show and a drink once in awhile?" Monty slurred his words. "I may not be good enough to be a performer, but I can still enjoy a good show once in awhile, can't I?"

"Monty, you were at a show last night? Which one did you go and see?" Rachel asked ignoring Monty's hung over condition for the moment.

"Right now, I don't remember, but it was good. The manager lets me sit in the back of the balcony, and then I always go to this little bar afterwards for a drink or two. It could've been me on that stage, but those fool's wouldn't have me," Monty slurred. "If only Anya hadn't walked out on me"

"Who's Anya?" Rachel asked.

"My wife," Monty confessed.

"I thought you said your wife was dead," Rachel asked confused.

"Dead, left me, what's the difference? She's been gone so long; she's probably six feet under somewhere by now. Anya's final words to me were that she was as good as dead to me. She only married me to get into this country legally." Monty almost sobbed in his drunken stupor.

"Are you going to be alright?" Rachel asked looking at her watch. "I would stay and help you, but I'm going to be late for my first class at Juilliard."

"Well we wouldn't want that to happen now would we?" Monty said fighting off the alcohol. "You go on and attend your classes and become a star. I'll be okay after some coffee and some sleep. I'll go and bang on that AC unit again when my own head stops banging."

Monty slid the key into the lock, open his door, and then shut it in Rachel's face like he had the day before.

Rachel hurried off to her first class of many to come at Juilliard. Her first class was Introduction to the Musical Stage. Her professor was a retired Russian ballerina named Professor Zhivanevskaya who asked that she be called simply "Zelda."

On her way home, Rachel stopped and bought herself a box fan to put in her window when the AC refused to work. She didn't like having her window open to the fire escape while she tried to sleep. Maybe if she jammed the fan into the window any intruder would make enough noise to wake her up if they tried to get in.

Hauling the fan up the stairs, Monty saw Rachel and offered to help. "Ms. Hudson, I hope you don't need the fan. The AC has been working steadily all day. And Ms. Hudson, I'm sorry that I lied to you and your friends about my wife. After all these years of waiting for her to come back, it's just easier to say that she's dead. I don't have to explain anything that way. I'm also sorry that you saw me hung over. It happens from time to time," Monty explained sheepishly.

"I'm not against celebratory libation from time to time. Just please don't let it interfere with you duties as building superintendent," Rachel scolded as she passed the fan off to Monty.

"I have no idea what you just said," Monty commented.

"Finn, my husband says the exact same thing. Are you sure that you couldn't be related? Here hold my book bag and I'll show you a picture of him," Rachel said digging in her purse.

"Ms. Hudson, I do see a resemblance, but I am an only child, and I have no other family. My wife Anya and I never had any children because she said that it would interfer with her life on the stage," Monty scoffed as he handed Finn's picture back to Rachel. "I am of Scotch-English descent, but more Scottish than English. My family has been in this country for several hundred years.

"Your wife was on the stage?" Rachel asked suddenly excited.

"She was a very educated dancer, but because Anya didn't speak English, she couldn't take direction very well. She was also so stubborn. Producers and directors have very little patience for headstrong performers when there are a dozen others waiting to take your place. She left me twenty years ago, and I haven't heard from her since. Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about my self," Monty said as he handed Rachel's belongings back to her.

Later Finn, Rachel, and Beth were on Skype having their nightly conversation. Beth told Rachel about her day and going to her play group with Sharon. Beth also wanted to know how much longer it was going to be before Rachel came home.

"Not long sweetie, I'll be home not this weekend, but the next one Rachel promised. Now you go and find G-Daddy and tell him that you're ready for your bedtime story, I need to tell Daddy about my first day of classes," Rachel asked Beth. "I love you, sleep tight!"

"Bye Mommy, I love you," Beth said as she jumped off of Finn's lap and went to look for Leroy and her bedtime story.

"Tell me about your first day at Juilliard, the most prestigious arts school in the whole world. Was it every thing that you thought it would be?" Finn asked with pride in Rachel's accomplishments.

"Finn, I have the most eccentric professor for my Introduction to the Musical Stage class. She's a retired Russian ballerina. I can't pronounce her name, but she asked us to call her Zelda," Rachel smiled.

"Zelda, as in The Legend of Zelda?" Finn asked growing more interested.

"I don't know if she's legendary or not, but she must have been a high ranking ballerina to even be teaching at Juilliard," Rachel answered.

"No, Rach, for once I know something that you don't know!" Finn laughed knowing that Rachel didn't have a clue what he was talking about. "The Legend of Zelda is only one of the best video games of all times."

"Again, our worlds collide," Rachel answered unamused.

"Why are you taking classes from a ballerina? I though you were majoring in musical theater," Finn asked still smiling knowing that he had for once tripped Rachel up.

"Oh Finn, this is more of a history of the musical stage class. I hope that I will learn a lot from her," Rachel answered.

"Finn, I don't mean to change the subject, but is it possible that you might have some relatives here in New York? Our building superintendent looks a lot like you except he's about forty years old," Rachel asked.

"I wouldn't know, you'll have to ask Mom the next time that you're in Lima," Finn smiled at his beautiful bride. "Kurt said something about that too when he called last night. They say that everyone has a look-a-like out there somewhere. Didn't you say that you and Idina Menzel looked alike?" Finn asked.

"I guess you've got a point," Rachel conceded. "But I do want you and Beth to meet him when you come to New York. I'll be home next weekend. Do you think you and Beth could come here two weeks after that? Dad and Daddy said that they would cover our air fare back and forth during my first year."

"I'll have to clear the hours with Burt. Beth has never flown before. I don't know how she'll do, but I would love for her to see New York." Finn grinned.

"I want the two of you to learn to love New York as much as I do. There's so much to do, and Beth can get a first rate education here," Rachel beamed.

"We will, Beth and I'll be happy any place you are," Finn smiled his famous one sided smile.

"Rach, I do have a favor that I would like to ask you about. Do you remember when we sang Linda Ronstadt's and James Ingram's _Somewhere Out There _for one of our competitions?It's about two separated people looking up at the moon at the same time. We're in the same time zone, and it's a full moon tonight. Tonight at eleven, I'm going to go out in the back yard and look up at the moon. I hope that you'll be looking at it at the same time I am. That way I'll feel a little more connected to you."

"Finn, that's one of the sweetest things that you've ever said to me. Of course, I'll crawl out on my fire escape and look at the moon at precisely eleven. It'll be nice to know that you'll be looking up at the moon at the exact same time that I will be," Rachel said as she felt a small tear form.

A few minutes before eleven that night, Finn was sitting in the backyard swing that he had shared many times with Rachel. She was also waiting on her fire escape so many miles away. At exactly eleven they both began to sing,

"_Somewhere out there_

_Beneath the pale moonlight_

_Someone's thinking of me_

_And loving me tonight_

_Somewhere out there _

_Someone's saying a prayer_

_That we'll find one another_

_In that big somewhere out there_

_And even though I know _

_How very far apart we are_

_It helps to think we might be wishing_

_On the same bright star_

_And when the night wind_

_Starts to sing a lonesome lullaby_

_It helps to think we're sleeping _

_Underneath the same big sky-_

_Somewhere out there_

_If love can see us through_

_Then we'll be together_

_Somewhere out there_

_Out where dreams come true"_

Finn and Rachel finished singing the song. They both hoped that the other could feel their love for another as they gazed up at the moon. Finn sat in the swing for a few minutes longer, and Rachel sat on the fire escape just staring at the moon.

Rachel didn't know that down below her voice and her lonesome song had attracted the attention of not one, but two people. Monty was taking the last of the trash out to the dumpsters when he stopped to listen to Rachel sing. The other music admirer had stopped in the shadows, entranced by the beautiful voice that was coming from up above.

-/-

Until chapter 5, thank you for all of the awesome reviews and for adding my story to your alerts lists. Your support is appreciated so much, Whistler Nights.

_Somewhere Out There_ was written by Cynthia Weil. The Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo.


	5. Chapter 5 If These Walls Could Talk

**If These Walls Could Talk – Chapter 5**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. I do not own Wal-Mart.)

The next day after her classes, Rachel was determined to meet her neighbors. The people across the hall weren't at home, so Rachel tried the apartment next to hers.

Ringing the doorbell, Rachel soon heard the approaching thump, thump, thump of a cane accompanied by soft shuffling foot steps.

When the door swung open abruptly, Rachel was greeted by a small, bent, elderly black woman.

"Are you the telephone man?" The short woman barked at Rachel. "My granddaughter wants you to do something about wiring up her computer."

Rachel realized that the woman was blind when she noticed her thick dark glasses and white cane.

"No mam," Rachel stammered, surprised by the woman's forthrightness. "I'm your new neighbor. My name is Rachel Berry Hudson."

"Are you trying to sell me something that I don't need?"

"No mam, I just wanted to meet my neighbors. I'm from Lima, Ohio, and everyone there knows everyone else.

"Well, my name is Sallie Ann Lafayette, but you can call me Miss Sallie. I'm originally from New Orleans, and we all knew each other in my old neighborhood too. What brings you to New York?"

"I'm a freshman at Juilliard," Rachel answered cheerfully.

"You a singer or a dancer?" the old woman asked directly.

"I want to be a performer on Broadway. I'm a singer, but I'm learning to dance too."

"Ah, this old building has seen many want-a-be performers like yourself. They come to big city with stars in their eyes, dreams in their pockets, and not much else. Which apartment you staying in?"

My brother-in-law Kurt, his friend Blaine, and I are next door, we're in apartment 333.

Oh, that apartment has got some bad voodoo about it. People move in, but they don't stay long. Strange noises and smells always coming from that place. I think the girl that stayed there ahead of you left overnight. One day she was there, and the next day she was gone. Kinda vanished. But before she high tailed it out of here, there was a loud commotion over there. Sounded like somebody was trying to wrestle a bear to the ground. Being blind, I only knows what I hear, Sallie said unaware of the horrified look on Rachel's face.

"Are you saying that my apartment is haunted?" Rachel asked nervously.

Sallie senses the fear in Rachel's voice and tried to reassure her.

"No, no, ain't no black magic at work over there. Being from New Orleans I knows about black magic. Theys just a lot of strange things happenin in that apartment. Could be happenin all over this building for all I know," Sallie added.

"Goodness knows this building has been a lot of things over the years," Sallie continued. "I heard that it started out as a tavern on the first floor and a sewing factory above. My son said he heard that this building was a hospital and a morgue during the flu epidemic ninety some years ago. He heard that later it was a funeral parlor for a short while before it was used as a boarding house and then these here apartments. My children moved me up here twenty years ago when my husband Eli died."

"Would you like to come in for some tea? My granddaughter Hannah ain't here right now, but I can still fix up a decent cup of tea. I just brewed up a batch," Sallie concluded.

"Why thank you, Miss Sallie," Rachel said as she stepped into the apartment. "Except for Monty, you're the only person that I've met since I move into this building."

"You met Monty?" He's kind of a loner don't ya think? He was here when we moved in. He and his wife lived up here on the third floor then. His wife was high strung. I remember him being a handsome sort, and his wife was a foreigner. I think she was from Russia or one of them cold war countries. She didn't speak English, but you could tell that she's wasn't too happy here by the way she yelled at him all the time. Cussing in English and cussing in Russia sounds pretty much the same when you're screaming and throwing dishes."

"She threw dishes at him?" Rachel asked horrified.

"Yeah, dishes, knives, what ever she could get her hands on. It made a hell of a noise when the dishes hit the wall. Some nights I thought the tea cups were gonna come right through the wall," Sallie said pointing a crooked finger in the direction of Rachel's apartment.

"Did Monty and his wife live in my apartment?" Rachel asked growing increasing uneasy.

"Yeah, now that she mentioned it, they lived right over there," Sallie nodded pointing again to the wall that she shared with Rachel's apartment.

"Do you remember what his wife's name was?" Rachel asked timidly.

"Anne, Anna, Amy or something like that. She walked out on him, and Monty took it pretty hard. I think that's when he started drinkin. He took over as building superintendent soon after that to pay his rent. He didn't want to leave the building hoping that she'd come back.

"Monty never mentioned that he once lived in my apartment," Rachel said softly.

"He's probably been on one too many drinkin binges since then to remember," Sallie admitted.

"Is Monty an alcoholic?" Rachel asked wide-eyed.

"Nah, he's just what we call a broken-hearted drunk back in Louisiana. Ever once in awhile he ties one on to forget the past," Sallie said wistfully. "Monty's harmless; he's just wasted his life on dreams that never came true and a wife that never came back."

"Miss Sallie, I've enjoyed our conversation and the delicious tea. Please feel free to come over and visit us anytime we're there."

"Oh these walls are so thin; I knows when you're home. These old eyes may not see much, but there ain't nothin wrong with my ears. I even know when you cut wind," Miss Sallie said with a small laugh.

Horrified, Rachel tried to remember if she had made any embarrassing noises in the last few days or if she had said anything inappropriate to Finn during their midnight chats.

Rachel headed back to her apartment to tell Blaine and Kurt all about her conversation with Miss Sallie. Rachel was so curious that she wanted to immediately start an internet search for both Monty and her apartment building. Kurt made some calls to find out where he could go to find out any information on the old building from city planning, and Blaine unpacked his expensive camera. With his long lens, he was going to try and snap a few pictures of Monty without being seen. There had to be a reason why Monty and Finn looked so much alike.

"Kurt, Blaine, I have to show you something," Rachel said taking them into her bedroom. Rachel went over to the corner of her room and pulled back the carpet where she had tore it up before. "What do you think that is, and why would you cover up these wooden floors with cheap carpet if that's not what I think it is?"

As Blaine and Kurt stooped to inspect the brown splatter that stained the hardwood floors, the smell of something dead wafted over them again.

"Rachel, why haven't you told us about this before?" Blaine asked. "We've smelled it too, but it's not this strong anywhere else in the apartment, and we thought it was a dead rat in the wall or something."

"You don't smell it at all in our room when the air conditioning is on," Kurt added.

"I'm determined to be as independent as possible, and I've complained enough about the smell to you already." Rachel reasoned. "After Monty said that he used a lot of rat poison, I thought that the smell might be a dead rat or rats in the wall too."

"It's the splatter pattern bothers me," Kurt said shaking his head. "I'm heading out to see if I can find a black light."

"Why do you need a black light?" Rachel asked.

"If the spatter is anything biological, it will show up under a black light when you turn off the other lights," Kurt explained.

"Biological meaning blood," Rachel asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes," Blaine and Kurt answered almost in unison.

-/-

It was Saturday morning in Lima and Finn had made it five days without Rachel. Five days of classes were behind him, and in one week Rachel would be home for the weekend.

Sharon Evans had been there to help with Beth during the week, but on the weekend the Hummel's pitched in. Burt was letting Finn work in the front of the shop on Saturdays to learn both ends of the business. Finn would be working with the public today, so he had to look presentable. Before heading into work he fed and dressed Beth and then left her with Carole along with an overflowing diaper bag and her potty chair.

Saturday passed quickly as there was a steady stream of customers to keep everyone busy. Finn worked the desk along with Burt. Sam was in the pit rotating tires with the rest of Burt's pit crew. Sam liked it back in the pit. He was working with his hands while he sang along with the country music that flowed from his radio.

Burt was impressed with Finn's natural salesmanship up front. Before the summer was over, Burt was betting that Finn could sell snow cones to Eskimos if he had to.

Sunday was everyone's day of rest. After lunch Finn decided to take Beth out for some shopping. She needed some new shoes, and he wanted to get the toddler a new outfit. He wanted Beth to look special when Rachel stepped off the plane on Friday. He was rounding the aisles in Wal-Mart with Beth in the shopping cart when he encountered Santana and Brittany.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Mom?" Santana said with a smirk. "Rachel has gone off and left you here to be daddy full time I see."

"Santana, please don't talk like that in front of Beth," Finn said handing Beth her doll to distract her. "Rachel will be home on Friday, and you know that we're doing what's best for Beth, not what's best for me or Rachel. Beth and I could be with Rachel right now, but we have family and a nanny to help here. I'm going to school, and Burt's letting me work for him. I have crazy hours, but he's being flexible."

"Yeah, Sam told me that Rachel's two dads had hired his mom as a housekeeper and a nanny, and he was working for Burt. Your family's getting kind of involved with Sam's family. How's that working out?" Santana asked.

"It couldn't be a better arrangement. Mrs. Evans is a life-saver, and Beth adores her. Sam fits in at the shop like he's been there for years. Why are you asking?" Finn asked.

"I don't know." Santana confessed. "Just making small talk I guess. Beth's growing so fast, and she really is beautiful."

Brittany had been standing there the whole time studying Beth's face and blonde curls. Occasionally she would look at Finn and then turn her attention back to Beth.

"Finn," Brittany finally said seriously. "I've been looking at Beth, and I don't think she looks like either you or Rachel. Aren't babies supposed to look like their parents? I look like my mom."

Finn and Santana looked at each other like they couldn't believe what Brittany had just said.

Santana said to Finn, "We've got to be going. I have to explain a few things to Brittany, but you keep right on shopping. You're doing a good job, Mommy."

Beth heard the word 'mommy' and immediately started looking around for Rachel.

"No, no, baby girl," Finn cooed to Beth. "Mommy's not here yet, but she will be on Friday. You need to help me pick out a special outfit that you can wear to the airport when we pick Mommy up."

When Finn and Beth had finished shopping they had bought a pink sundress with a bonnet for Beth along with white sandals and frilly socks. Finn was actually proud of their purchase. He may be only eighteen and a guy, but he thought Rachel would approve of his and Beth's selections.

That night when Beth, Finn, and Rachel had their web cam visit, Finn told Rachel all about his encounter with Brittany and Santana and what Brittany had said. Rachel told them about Miss Sallie. She neglected to tell Finn and Beth about her growing concerns over the apartment and Monty. That could wait until she and Finn were together face to face.

-/- Until chapter six, please keep reviewing. I appreciate your feed back and ideas so much! Whistler Nights.


	6. Five Days Is a Long Time to Wait

**Five Days Is a Long Time to Wait – Chapter 6**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

It was Finn's second Monday morning without Rachel. She would be home late Friday afternoon, and it seemed like an eternity.

Finn was already making preparations. He and Beth would pick Rachel up at the airport. If they hurried, they could get back to the Berry's house before the Jewish Sabbath began on Friday evening. Hiram and Leroy had missed having Rachel home to recite the prayers and blessings as the only woman of the house. After dinner, he and Rachel could give Beth a quick bath together before they retired early for the night. Finn had to figure out how to spread rose petals all over their bed without Hiram and Leroy seeing them. The two older men wouldn't object, but Finn didn't want them to think that he was preparing to ravishing their daughter later that night.

Puck had managed to score a small bottle of champagne and Finn was going to chill it in their bathroom sink. Plans were going smoothly. All he needed was for Beth to go to bed without any trouble and to stay asleep. Surely Rachel's fathers would understand if they said their good nights to them immediately after dinner. Two weeks is a long time when you're both eighteen and you're still almost newlyweds. Finn was already tingling in anticipation.

Rachel's Monday morning hadn't started so smoothly. She had been up most of Sunday night immersed in her computer search for anything about the history of her old building and her illusive building superintendent, Ian "Monty" Montgomery.

Rachel rushed out the door running late for her eight o'clock class with Professor Zelda Zhivanevskaya at Juilliard.

Entering the classroom late, Zelda stopped her lecture in mid-sentence and watched Rachel come in. "Nice of you to join us," Zelda commented. "The rest of your classmates have already chosen their assignments for mid-terms exams so you'll have to take what is left over." Zelda held out an old worn black top hat and motioned for Rachel to take one of the remaining slips of paper.

"In the hat Ms. Hudson, you will find the title of a famous Broadway show tune. You are to find out everything that you can about the song and write a two thousand word paper on its merits. Since you are a voice student, you will then perform it for the rest of the class on the day we have mid-terms. If you have any questions, ask one of your fellow classmates as I have already wasted enough of our time together explaining the assignment twice."

"Rachel felt the embarrassment wash over her as she selected a piece of paper from the top hat.

The embarrassment was soon replaced with pangs of joy when she read her selected song. It was _Memory _from Andrew Lloyd Webber's _Cats._

"I may have gotten off to a bad start with Zelda by being late for class, but with this song, I'm sure to ace this class," Rachel thought to herself as she sat back down.

"Which song have you selected?" Zelda asked Rachel as she prepared to jot it down in her notes.

"_Memory_, from the musical _Cats_, Rachel answered trying to hide her enthusiasm.

"Ah, one of my favorites, I will expect something special from you since you have selected such a special song," Zelda answered softening her frown into a faint smile.

After class Rachel tired to apologize to Zelda for being late.

"Don't let it happen again!" Zelda admonished Rachel. "If it does, I will drop you like a hot potato!"

"No Professor Zelda, it won't happen again," Rachel apologized.

"Do you remember what I asked you on our first day of class?" Please address me only as Zelda. I haven't been called professor in the twenty or so years that I have been here," Zelda said placing her notes neatly in her brief case.

"Zelda, if you have a moment I would like to ask a small question?" Rachel asked the taller woman.

"What is it my dear?" Zelda asked seeming to soften a little.

"Did you ever perform on Broadway?" Rachel asked her teacher timidly.

"Why yes I did, I was in a Christmas production of Peter Tchaikovsky's _The_ _Nutcracker_, but that was a long time ago. My performance was flawless, but the critics didn't agree. They said I was too tall and big boned for the part. I was a classically trained ballerina in my Fatherland of Russia, but the American critics only saw my height," Zelda scoffed clinching her jaw visibly.

"May I ask you one more question, Profes-, I mean Zelda," Rachel asked again.

"Why not?" Zelda sighed. "You have already wasted half of my morning, and my next class is later this afternoon."

"When you were a performer, did you know another Russian dancer who was also on Broadway about twenty years ago? Her first name was Anya. I don't know her maiden last name, but she was married to Ian Montgomery at the time?" Rachel asked timidly.

Zelda didn't answer immediately, but Rachel saw the larger woman's entire body tense before Zelda drew in her breath to answer.

"No, I did not know anyone else from the Fatherland then!" Zelda almost spat out her words. "Now if you do not have anymore personal questions, I have to go! I am late for my next lecture!"

Rachel was stunned by Zelda's sudden change in demeanor and her abrupt exit. Zelda herself had just said that her next class wasn't until later in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Blaine's first class of the day didn't start until ten that Monday morning. He was out early trying to take a few long range pictures of Monty. Monty has been outside since before eight trying to unclog the trash shoot that emptied into the dumpster from the third floor. One of the tenants had tried to force an old portable television down the shoot earlier and it was stuck on something. Before Monty had managed to unclog the shoot, Blaine had taken at least a dozen good pictures of Monty without him knowing.

Kurt had found out a lot about their old building on the internet, and had also found out where to go to find the city's records.

Miss Sallie was right. The building had started out with a tavern on the bottom floor and a sewing factory on the top two floors. It had really been more of a sweat shop for immigrant labor than a factory.

In 1918 there had been a world flu pandemic that hit New York. Their building had been used as hospital and a morgue for the dead.

The building had been slated for demolition during the Depression, but that never happened. Someone had tried to get the building listed on the National Registry of Historic Buildings but that never happened either.

The building had been used as a boarding house, a warehouse, and a funeral home over the years. Embalming and body preparations had been done on the third floor. The smell of dead bodies on street level was too offensive to people on the sidewalk out front. A dumb waiter had been used to transfer bodies to and from the third floor. It was later replaced with the existing trash shoots.

In the 1980's the building was converted into apartments and air conditioning and ventilation had been added at the time.

The basement had never been totally renovated, but contained the heating and air conditioning units along with pipes and tunnels that connected to the city's sewer system.

With copies of his research in hand, Kurt made his way back to their apartment by mid afternoon.

"Rachel," Kurt called cheerfully as he came through the door. "I think I have found the cause of your odor. When this building was used as a funeral home, the embalming was done on the third floor. That might also explain the stains on your floor."

Rachel and Blaine had been studying the developed pictures of Monty that Blaine had taken that morning. Kurt handed his research to Blaine. Blaine was soon puzzled by the dates.

"Kurt, this might explain the stains, but this place was used for embalming sixty years ago. Nothing from then would still be smelling like death today. Were you able to find a black light?"

"Yes, I found a black light, but I had to go to one of those bazaar party stores to find one," Kurt answered pulling the light from his messenger bag.

"Well let's check it out," Blaine said pulling the light out of the box.

Rachel went into her room and closed all of the curtains and cut off the regular lights. Blaine pulled the carpet in the corner back.

As Kurt held the black light over the stains, they started to glow slightly.

"This isn't right, even if these stains are blood. They should be too old to show up like this," Blaine said shaking his head.

Rachel turned the regular lights back on and the three of them began pulling up more carpet and moving Rachel's furniture into the living room. The blood spatter covered almost the entire floor with a poorly cleaned up pool in the center of the room.

Astounded the three were just looking at each other when Rachel noticed that the spatter was also visible on the walls. The walls had been painted with a cheap, watered down paint and the blood stains were showing through it under the black light.

Rachel was afraid to breathe when she looked up. The ceiling had three long streaks of spatter on it too.

"I think that it's time to call the police," Kurt managed to say as he swallowed hard.

A police officer came, but really didn't offer Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt many answers. The stains were old, but the lone beat cop couldn't tell how old. Maybe the hot weather had brought the odor back. Had the carpet been steam cleaned recently?

There had been no report of any crimes in the building in years, no persons were reported missing, and the building had once been used for embalming and as a morgue.

Without a full crime lab investigation, the officer couldn't give them any answers that made sense. He would turn his report into the crime lab, but in the mean time he advised them stick to their school work and give up being junior detectives.

Rachel decided then and there that she was going to sleep in the living room. They had moved most of her furniture in there when they pulled up the carpet, and the spatters on the ceiling were just too much. When she was home on Saturday, she was going to talk to her dads about breaking the lease.

The officer wanted to question Monty, but once again Monty had vanished into thin air. The officer did question Sallie, but he dismissed her even easier that he had Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt because she was old and blind.

Monty was gone the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday. On Wednesday morning Rachel knocked on his door and found it ajar. Monty was sprawled out on his dilapidated couch stone drunk.

Rachel had never been in Monty's apartment as he made a point of always closing the door in her face. On a side table Rachel found a twenty year old wedding picture of Monty and Anya. Monty resembled Finn even more in the picture. Anya had dark hair and eyes and looked to be about six inches shorter than Monty. The couple was standing on what looked like the steps of a government building.

On one wall were old posters advertising Broadway shows that had played over twenty years ago. On the other wall Rachel found reprints of newspaper clippings about the Viet Nam War in the late 1960's and early 1970's pined up with thumb tacks. Reports of MIA's and POW's had been circled. Beside the reports were a few badly worn letters on ancient military stationary. The letters had been mailed in Viet Nam forty or more years earlier and were addressed to a Miss Margaret Montgomery in New York City. Monty was beginning to stir, so Rachel silently made her way out of Monty's apartment with more questions than answers. She wanted to grab the letters, but that would have to wait. She needed Monty to trust her.

-/-

Until chapter 7, thank you for all of the suggestions, ideas, and reviews. Your opinions matter to me. Thanks again, Whistler Nights


	7. Chapter 7 You're Not Alone

**You're Not Alone – Chapter 7**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. All personal names are fictional.)

Later that afternoon Rachel returned to Monty's apartment to see if he was recovering from his two day drinking binge. She tapped softly on his door and found it still ajar from the morning.

"Go away and stop banging on my door!"

"Monty, it's just me Rachel from apartment 333. I came to check on you, and I brought some black coffee for you," Rachel said as she pushed the door open.

She walked up behind a staggering Monty to discover that he was trying to shove his meager belongs into an old duffel bag.

"Ms. Hudson, I never invited you in here," Monty snapped at Rachel. "I have to leave so please get out now!"

"Monty, please call me Rachel, and why do you have to leave?"

"The cops have been here, they're going to find out. I have to get out of here before they come back," Monty said almost incoherent.

"Monty, what have you done?" Rachel begged him.

"I haven't done anything; I just cleaned up the mess every time."

"What mess?" Rachel asked.

"The blood, all that blood," Monty slurred.

"How many times have you cleaned up the blood?" Rachel asked trying to keep Monty talking to her.

"Three times," Monty said almost crying.

"Where did you clean up the blood three times?" Rachel asked calmly.

"I cleaned it up in our apartment," Monty answered through his alcohol haze.

"Do you mean apartment 333?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, that was our first apartment after we got married. We were so happy in the beginning."

"What changed? Rachel asked.

"Anya changed. She blamed me for everything," Monty said softly. "She hated living in America so she took it out on me."

"Monty, why didn't you report the blood to the police?" Rachel asked softly.

"I didn't know where all of that blood came from. There was never a body, that's why. Building management calls me every time someone moves out or moves in to clean an apartment. It's only happened three times, and every time it was our old apartment. It only happened when a young woman moved into 333. I did it to protect Anya. I did it to protect Anya's ghost." Monty said before he slumped back onto the couch.

"Do you think Anya killed someone up in your old apartment?" Rachel asked.

"Her ghost did. She didn't want any other woman living in our apartment. That's why her ghost did it. She came back to me and found another woman living in our apartment," Monty slurred.

"Are you sure Anya is dead?" Rachel asked.

"My Anya is definitely dead. I know that she's gone because my heart doesn't hurt anymore. My heart only feels dead," Monty said before he fell asleep again.

Rachel called Blaine and Kurt and asked them to meet her in Monty's apartment. They helped her arrange Monty comfortably on the couch and covered him with a blanket. Rachel then showed Kurt and Blaine the twenty year old Broadway posters and the reprints of the Viet Nam newspaper clippings.

Rachel then reached for one of the letters sticking out of Monty's duffle bag but hesitated. Would she want to know what might be in the letters? Taking a deep breath she read the first letter before she handed it to Kurt.

She read all the letters and then looked at the clock. It would soon be time for her web cam visit with Beth and Finn.

"Guys, can I leave you here with Monty so I can go up and call Finn?" Rachel asked Blaine and Kurt.

"Are you going to tell him about what we've found out?" Kurt asked.

"No, I know very little about Finn's family, and I want to ask him these questions face to face this weekend. I haven't told him about the apartment either. Some things are better said in person. I'll put on a happy face for Finn and Beth and make the call short. I'll bring some coffee when I come back," Rachel offered.

"Bring out lap tops too when you come back. If we're going to baby sitting this drunk all night, we might as well get some homework done," Kurt asked.

Before dawn the next morning Monty awoke to find Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt asleep around him. As he got up Rachel asked him where he thought he was going.

"I have to leave town," Monty answered more coherently.

"No you don't, you told us every thing last night when you were trying to get over your two days of drinking. You haven't killed anyone, and no one has linked the blood stains in the apartment to you. The police think the blood stains have been there since the place was used to embalm bodies," Rachel said trying to reason with Monty.

"I still need to go," Monty said as Blaine and Kurt were waking up.

"Where are you going to go?" Blaine asked.

"I don't know, since my Anya has been gone I have no one left in this world.

"You might," Kurt explained. "We took the liberty of reading your letters, and you may have more family than you think."

"You read my letters?" Monty asked stunned.

"What else were we supposed to do? Sit here and listen to you snore all night?" Blaine asked.

Rachel turned to Monty and asked, "Do you remember your mother's name?"

"Of course I do. She was Margaret Montgomery. She died a long time ago."

"What about your father's name?" Kurt asked.

"All I know about my father was that his name was Joe. The army drafted him and sent him to Viet Nam. His buddy sent Mom a letter telling her that Joe was captured by the Viet Cong almost as soon as he got there. Since he and my mom were never married, she never heard anything about him after that," Monty confided.

"We read the letters that Joe sent to your mom, and the ones that the army returned to her. Did Joe know that your mother was pregnant with you before he shipped out?" Rachel asked softly.

Monty just shook his head 'no' before he started to cry softly.

"Monty, I'm going back to Lima this weekend and I hope to find some answers for you. I'm not positive, but you may not be as alone as you think. You may have had a younger half-brother named Christopher who was killed in Desert Storm. If that is true, you have a nephew named Finn who is my husband."

Monty just looked at Rachel like she had lost her mind.

"None of this can be true. You got all of this from reading love letters that were just signed by some guy named Joe. A guy that knocked up my mom and then spent the last of the Viet Nam war in a POW camp without ever knowing that I existed?" Monty said in total disbelief.

"I know that it's far fetched, but you and my husband look too much alike for this to be a coincidence. I do know that my husband's grandfather was named Joseph Finn Hudson. Finn wants to name a son after him and his dad Christopher Hudson."

"Finn's grandfather and your father maybe the same man."

"Maybe it's all a lot of jumping to the wrong conclusions, but promise me that you won't go anywhere until I get back from Lima Sunday night. Kurt and Blaine will be here if you need anything. No one has said anything about you to the police. They only wanted to talk to you because you're the building's super. That's all. If you run, it's going to make you look suspicious," Rachel concluded.

Monty agreed to stay. Rachel hoped that he meant it. She and the boys had to get to their Thursday classes so they left him alone in his ran down apartment.

When Rachel returned from her Thursday classes, Monty was still there. She found him trying to fix a broken door lock at Miss Sallie's apartment. Pulling Sallie aside she asked Sallie about her visit from the policeman on Monday.

"I didn't tell that policeman a thing," Miss Sallie confessed. "I was taught to keep those kinds of goin ons to yourself. I don't get mixed up in things that ain't none of my business."

"Miss Sallie, I am your neighbor and your friend now. If you hear anything like you described to me the other day, would you please call 911? If you don't want to do that, would you at least call Monty?" Rachel asked the old woman.

"I'll call Monty, but that ain't no guarantee that he won't be off somewhere on a drunk," Sallie said loud enough for Monty to hear her.

"I heard that Miss Sallie," Monty laughed. "For you, I'd climb out of any bottle long enough to save you."

"That's nice to know that you would put down the booze long enough to save me. Lord help us if this building ever catches on fire." Miss Sallie laughed. "Have you fixed my lock yet? You've been working on it long enough to fix every door in this building!"

"Its fixed Miss Sallie, now it you'll excuse me, I'd like a word with Rachel."

"So it's Rachel now? You know that she's a married woman," Miss Sallie laughed again.

"Yes, and she young enough to be my daughter," Monty laughed back at the old woman.

Out in the hall Monty thanked Rachel again for staying with him while he slept off his two day drinking binge. He also told her that he didn't hold out much hope that he and Finn were related, but he wasn't going anywhere. The old building had been his home for over twenty years, and the people there were like family.

On Thursday night Rachel made her nightly trip out onto the fire escape at eleven. She had missed this ritual the night before because she and the boys were holding vigil in Monty's apartment while he slept off his hangover. The full moon was gone and now only a small crescent shape remained.

"This time tomorrow," she thought to herself, "I'll be cuddle up in Finn's arms safely in our bed. Nothing can hurt me when Finn is holding me."

Finn was her safety, Finn was her home. She missed him and Beth more than she thought she would. She wondered if living in New York without them for the next four years would be worth it in the long run. She had only been there two weeks and so much had happened already. Sadly she began to sing not _Somewhere Out There_, but _Memory _instead.

Her voice began to build as she hit the chorus. Down below, Monty was once again taking out the last of the trash. He stopped in the street light and clapped when Rachel finished.

"Bravo, bravo," Monty called up to Rachel on the fire escape.

"I didn't realize that I had an audience," Rachel called down. "It's nice to see our building superintendent attending to his duties. This trash was beginning to pile up!"

Monty just laughed as he pulled the trash barrel back into the building. Neither of them knew that they both were being watched by someone else.

In the shadows someone had been watching for Monty to make his nightly trip to the dumpster. That someone had paused when the alleyway was filled with the lyrics of the song _Memory_. For a moment the shadowed figure stood in the darkness and let Rachel's voice wash over them. They were snapped back into reality when Monty applauded Rachel's performance. They watched as the door slammed shut behind Monty, and Rachel climbed back into her room from the fire escape.

On Friday morning, Finn was nervous as he tried to feed Beth her breakfast. Hiram had fixed breakfast, and Leroy was packing the lunches for the three men. It was a ritual that they had gotten into since Rachel had been gone.

Finn still felt a bit uncomfortable with Leroy and Hiram without Rachel being there, but the two older men had tried to make him feel at home. Having Beth there made the difference. She was like a buffer between the awkwardness. Hiram and Leroy adored the little girl and she adored them.

Wiping Beth's face, Finn noticed that Hiram had sat down beside him. "Finn," Hiram began. "Leroy and I just want you to know how proud we are of you. I can't think of a single eighteen year old that would willingly take on such an enormous responsibility. I know that I couldn't have done what you're doing when I was eighteen."

"That goes for me too," Leroy added. "You have put your entire life on hold for Rachel and for Beth, and we'll always be grateful. You have made Rachel happier than she has ever been in her life. You may not be Beth's natural father, but she couldn't have picked a better one. Our Rachel also couldn't have found a better husband."

"Hiram, Leroy, please don't make me out to be a saint," Finn said holding his hands up. "I'm just doing what I would have been doing, except I'm doing it with the woman that I love, and a little girl that needs parents and a home. I knew long before the plane crash that I wanted to marry Rachel, and Beth has been through enough. Rachel and I are both doing this for Beth's sake, and we wouldn't have it any other way. I'm just so grateful that we have both of you to help us."

"We are happy to help in anyway that we can, and if you want us to take Beth and the baby monitor tonight we will," Hiram said with a quick wink.

Finn couldn't hide the blush that was creeping up his neck and over his face.

"No, no, Rach and I have got this. I appreciate the offer, but the three of us will be just fine," Finn stammered trying not to look too embarrassed. He might have expected Leroy to imply something like that, but never Hiram.

At five o'clock, Finn was pacing the baggage claim area at the airport with Beth in her stroller. He had dressed her in her pink sundress with the pink bonnet and white sandals and frilly white socks.

Rachel's hot pink over night bag appeared on the luggage carrousel before Rachel came through the gate. When she finally did, Finn picked her up and whirled her around. Then he sat her down, looked in her eyes, and then gave her the deepest kiss in front of everyone. Beth was sitting in her stroller squealing "Mommy, Mommy," the whole time they were kissing.

Two flight attendants were passing by and one of them said, "What a beautiful family. It looks like someone is glad that their mommy is home."

Finn broke the kiss and immediate unbuckled Beth and picked her up. Beth leaned for Rachel to take her. After many hugs and kisses, the little family made their way out to Finn's truck. Beth was in her car seat in the middle, but that didn't keep Finn from holding Rachel's hand.

They arrived back at the Berry house just in time for the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath. Hiram and Leroy had the meal ready and the table prepared. Rachel recited the prayers and blessings and then sat down beside Finn.

Beth was so cute folding her tiny hands and bowing her head for the prayers. Finn started to feed Beth when Rachel stopped him. "Let me," she said. "I've missed sharing meals with our little girl."

After dinner the four adults were sitting in the living room eating their desserts when Beth dragged her potty seat from the downstairs bathroom into the middle of the living room floor.

"Beth honey, your potty seat belongs in the bathroom," Finn said to his daughter.

"No," Rachel stopped Finn. "Beth has something new, and she wants to show it to me. Her potty seat really does look like a throne."

"I knew that you would approve," Finn smiled. "A pink throne with stars for our little princess."

"Wait Mommy!" Beth squealed happily as she ran off in the direction of the bathroom.

Beth soon returned with one of the cups from her tea set filled with water. She poured the water into the potty and it began to play its song, "Tinkle, tinkle little star. How I wonder how dry you are?"

Rachel was almost rolling on the floor with laughter. Finn, Leroy and Hiram were having a good laugh too. Beth was so delighted that she ran back into the bathroom for more water.

Rachel caught her breath and then asked the three men a question, "Beth can't reach the sink. Where's she getting the water?"

Finn's face went pale before he ran after Beth in the bathroom.

"No Beth no, put the water back in the toilet," Finn could be heard out in the living room.

Rachel, Hiram, and Leroy were laughing so hard their sides were hurting. Finn carried Beth out of the bathroom drying her tiny hands.

"I'm glad that we don't have a dog," Rachel laughed again. "You men never put the seat down."

"We will put it down now," Finn smiled weakly as he sat down with Beth in his lap.

Rachel yawned deeply as she asked Finn if he would help her give Beth a bath and get her ready for bed.

"Sure," Finn said taking the hint.

"Dad, Daddy, it's been a long day so Finn and I will see you in the morning," Rachel yawned again.

"Sleep tight," Leroy and Hiram said as they gave Beth and Rachel hugs and goodnight kisses.

Beth had the fastest bath and bedtime story in history. Rachel was finishing up with Beth when Finn excused himself to take a shower.

When Rachel entered their bedroom Finn was already in bed in his pajama bottoms and Rachel's side of the bed was turned down. Fake rose petals were scattered here and there and vanilla scented candles were lit.

"This looks familiar," Rachel said coyly.

"Just like our wedding night except the rose petals and the candles are new. Kurt suggested them." Finn smiled. "I have my favorite night gown laid out for you in the bathroom."

"Your favorite night gown? Will I get to wear it long?" Rachel asked shyly.

"Probably not," Finn smiled his famous one sided smile.

Rachel took a quick shower and was soon snuggling up next to Finn.

"Finn, I have missed being with you so much," Rachel whispered in his ear.

Finn was trailing kisses down her neck and untying one of the bows that held the nightgown together when their door suddenly burst open. Beth was soon prying her self between them.

"No, no, Mommy mine," Beth said pushing Finn away.

Finn fell back on his pillow and tired to hide his arousal with another pillow.

"Beth, how did you get out of your crib?" Finn asked in total exasperation as he stared at the ceiling.

"Mommy mine," was all that Beth would say as she backed into Rachel's chest.

"Well she hasn't seen me in two weeks," Rachel defended Beth.

Finn tried to put Beth back to bed, but she hung onto Rachel tightly.

Defeated, Finn got back into bed and watched his two best girls play with the fake rose petals. After an eternity Beth was asleep between the two of them. She had her fingers embedded in Rachel's hair.

"It looks like we aren't getting any action tonight, but tomorrow she's spending the night with Mom and Burt," Finn surrendered.

"It's okay," Rachel smiled looking at Finn with Beth between them sleeping like an angel. "You and I have something very important that we need to talk about before tomorrow anyway."

"Are you pregnant?" Finn asked a little stunned.

"No, I'm not pregnant, but your family might be adding an extra member," Rachel whispered to Finn who was still not reassured.

"Are Kurt and Blaine getting married? It's legal in New York now you know," Finn asked.

"If they're getting married, they haven't told me anything about it," Rachel said with a small laugh. "Kurt knows that Mercedes and I would kill him if we weren't bridesmaids."

"Finn," Rachel asked seriously, "Please tell me everything that you know about your father's father?"

"Grandpa Joe? I don't remember too much about him, and the early stuff is just what Mom told me. Why don't you ask her?"

"I want the two of us to talk to her tomorrow, but please tell me what she has told you." Rachel asked again.

"The biggest thing that I remember is that he was a POW during the Viet Nam War. He spent several years in a POW camp and was beaten, tortured, and worst of all brain washed. When the war ended, he was returned to the United States and spent a long time in the Walter Reid Military Hospital. That's where he met my Grandma Ann. He was really messed up when he came back from Viet Nam, but she brought him back to life. They got married, returned to her home town of Lima, and had my dad, Christopher Joseph Hudson. Ask Mom, she might be able to tell you some more," Finn said while stroking Beth's hair while the toddler slept between them.

"Bingo!" Rachel squealed almost unable to control her enthusiasm. She jumped out of bed and ran to her suit case. When she came back, she had all of the pictures of Monty that Blaine had taken.

"Finn, look at these pictures and tell me what you think. This is the Monty that Kurt and I have been telling you about. He told us the exact same story. His mom, Margaret Montgomery was seeing a guy name Joe before he was drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Joe never knew that she was pregnant before he was captured by the Viet Cong. Finn, you might have an uncle. Your dad may have had an older step brother that nobody ever knew about. This could be another link to your father," Rachel gushed happily.

Finn studied the pictures for the longest time, then Rachel showed him Margaret Montgomery's letters from Viet Nam.

"Rachel, you might be on to something, but I want to talk to Mom about this tomorrow. It would be nice to know that I have an uncle in this world, and another link to my dad," Finn bit his lip while fighting back a tear.

When Finn woke up the next morning the sleeping arrangements had gotten changed during the night. Rachel was sandwiched between Finn and Beth. Rachel was snuggled up against Finn's chest and Beth was snuggled up next to Rachel.

Finn really hadn't slept much that night, but was enjoying watching his little family sleep. Beth, Rachel, Kurt, and Burt were his new family, but he might have even more family. They were going to be over at Carole and Burt's early to see what Carole knew about Grandpa Joe before his life changed forever in Viet Nam.

-/- There is still more to come, so until Chapter 8, please keep reviewing. Thank you so much for your feedback, Whistler Nights.


	8. Chapter 8 Ashes and Rust

**Hey There Rachel Hudson – Chapter 8**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. I do not own Skyp

-/-

On Rachel's first Saturday morning back, she woke up to find Beth patting her cheek.

"Wake up Mommy, wakeup."

Rachel snuggled with the little girl before Beth scampered off to see what G-Dad and G-Daddy were making for breakfast.

Rachel could hear Finn in the shower so she took the opportunity to Skype with Kurt. She was excited to tell him everything she had learned about Finn's Grandpa Joe.

"Good Morning Rachel," Kurt yawned into the web camera. "Did you and Finn have fun last night?"

"If you are asking if we had sex all night the answer is no, but the candles and the fake rose petals were a nice touch. Beth attached herself to me like a leach and was between us all night," Rachel yawned back. "It turned out okay, Finn and I had a long talk, and he told me everything he knew about his Grandpa Joe. I'm certain that Monty is Finn's uncle."

"Have you told Finn that his long lost uncle is also an alcoholic, or that Monty has insane delusions? I don't think Carole would want that kind of rotten apple on her family tree even if Monty is Christopher Hudson's half-brother."

Have you had a chance to talk to Finn or your dads about what we found in your bedroom?" Kurt asked.

"Wait, you didn't tell me any of that extra stuff," Finn said stepping from the bathroom into their bedroom. Finn sat down beside Rachel at the computer and talked to Kurt directly.

"Kurt is my possible uncle what you said?" And what did you find in Rachel's bedroom," Finn asked Kurt point blank.

"Oh good morning Finn," Kurt tried to say cheerfully. "We didn't see you come in."

"Apparently not," Finn said with a towel wrapped around his waist and water still dripping from his hair. "From the pictures and the letters, I think that this Monty character is probably related to me, but I don't want him anywhere near Beth or Mom or you guys if he's an alcoholic, on drugs, or is crazy. And you still haven't told me what you found in Rachel's bedroom."

"Finn, all we know for sure is that he drinks when he's depressed, and when he does he imagines a lot of things. Miss Sallie says that he's not an alcoholic, but a harmless broken-hearted drinker, and she's known him for twenty years," Rachel tried to explain.

"Who's Miss Sallie?" Finn asked growing impatient.

"She's an elderly blind woman that lives beside us," Rachel told Finn.

"If she's elderly and blind, how does she know when this guy is drunk or what he does? I don't like the sounds of this. Before we approach my mom, I want you two to tell me everything that has happened in the two weeks that you've been in New York, and what did you find in Rachel's room?" Finn asked a third time.

"We pulled up the carpet and found what looks like a very large blood stain. Kurt bought a black light, and we think that there's blood spattered on the walls and ceiling showing though the cheap paint. We called the police, but the police officer that came thinks the stains date back to the time when our building was used as a morgue and a funeral home. He said that he would file a report with the police crime lab, and they would get back to us. There haven't been any major crimes reported in our building in years. The police officer told us to stop playing junior detective and concentrate on our schoolwork instead," Rachel confessed to Finn.

"And are you still sleeping in that room? I know how squeamish you are when it comes to blood," Finn asked Rachel astonished.

"No when we ripped up the carpet we had to move my things into the living room, I've been there ever since," Rachel said meekly.

"What's in your old room?" Finn asked

"We put the living room furniture and some odds and ends in that room. Blaine brought some bar bells and weights so he works out in that room. Blaine also has his golf cubs in there. The AC works better in the living room, and I don't miss having a fire escape or that flashing green and red neon sign outside the window," Rachel told Finn.

"Is Monty connected to the blood stains?" Finn asked Kurt and Rachel.

"We don't know," Rachel answered. "The police officer thinks that the stains were there before Monty lived in our apartment. When Monty drinks, he says a lot of confusing stuff about cleaning up blood stains. Maybe he tried to clean them up when he and his wife live there. He did paint the apartment and put down new carpet in my bedroom before we moved in."

At that moment, their video call was interrupted when Leroy yelled from down stairs that breakfast ready and it was getting cold.

"Kurt, this is a lot to think about all at once. Hiram and Leroy have breakfast ready, and we should go down and join them. Rachel and I will talk about this, and I'll call you back at ten," Finn suggested.

"Dad and Daddy are playing eighteen holes of golf with some friends today, so they should be gone most of the day. We can drop Beth off with Carole and come back here. The four of us can talk it over on the web cam then," Rachel offered.

"Do you have to work today Finn?" Kurt asked.

"No, your dad gave me the day off to spend with Rachel. Sam's covering for me today. Rachel and I'll be back here by ten o'clock. We'll give you and Blaine a call then," Finn told Kurt.

Down at breakfast, Leroy was trying to feed Beth pancakes and syrup. The little girl was insisting on feeding herself and had syrup dripping from her blond hair.

"Mommy, Daddy, Pantakes!" Beth squealed when Rachel and Finn entered the kitchen.

"I see," Rachel said as she reached for a paper towel to wipe some of the syrup out of Beth's hair. "Are you eating pancakes or wearing them?"

"I think she's wearing them," Finn commented as he sat down beside Beth and stole a bite of her pancakes.

"No, pantakes mine," Beth frowned at Finn.

"Everything's yours lately, even Mommy, but you have to learn to share. Today you're going to visit with Nana for awhile," Finn said as he stole another bite of Beth's pancakes.

Beth turned her big eyes up at Finn and said, "Nana mine!"

"Is Daddy yours too," Finn asked.

Beth smiled the biggest smile and nodded yes, "Daddy mine too."

"Did she keep you up last night?" Hiram asked.

"Yes and no," Finn yawned. "Some how she escaped from her crib and spent the night in the middle of our bed. She latched onto Rachel like a leach and wouldn't let go. She and Rachel haven't seen each other for two weeks so we let her stay."

After breakfast Beth had to have a bath to get the pancake syrup off of her. Rachel bathed her while Finn tried to get all of the syrup off of her high chair and the kitchen floor.

By eight-thirty they were on their way over to see Carole.

"Oh Rachel, it's so good to see you! How's New York? You've got to tell me everything," Carole gushed when she reached Finn's truck to welcome Rachel.

"New York is fine, it's a lot different from Lima, Ohio," Rachel said as she hugged Carole back.

"Well come in and tell me all about it, I've been dying to see you. How are Kurt and Blaine doing? Are the three of you getting settled in okay?" Carole rattled on. "I still have some coffee and sweet rolls left over from breakfast."

"I think we've had enough sticky stuff this morning, Beth has already had to have a bath to get the pancake syrup out of her hair," Rachel laughed.

"Well let sit down for a cup of coffee and let Beth play with her toys, I want to hear about your last two weeks," Carole asked eagerly.

Rachel told Carole all about her eccentric professor who asked to be called simply Zelda and her classes at Juilliard. She didn't tell Carole a lot about the apartment, but she did tell Carole about Miss Sallie and her building superintendent Monty. Rachel saw Finn raise an eyebrow at her so she didn't go into much detail about Monty.

"How are your dad's getting along without you?" Carole asked Rachel. "I know that they're busy with their law practice and Finn and Beth are over there, but we've missed having you young people around. It's a pity that you, Finn, and Kurt are all only children, but at least Finn and Beth are still here in town. If it weren't for them I would have already died from empty nest syndrome."

Finn took Carole's comment about siblings as a cue. He looked at his mom and asked, "Mom, I know that raising me by yourself was a lot of work, but do you ever wish that I hadn't been an only child?"

"Yes I did. Your dad and I wanted a houseful of kids, but Desert Storm changed all of that. I had sisters and brothers growing up, but your dad was an only child like you. He said that he was lonely growing up out in the country by himself, and he wanted you to have a bunch of brothers and sisters to grow up with. I hope that someday you and Rachel will give Beth a little brother or sister."

"Don't worry Mom, we're planning on it, but not until we're both out of school and making it on our own. We wouldn't be making it now if it weren't for you, Burt, Hiram, and Leroy," Finn answered his mom.

"That sounds like a good plan," Carole said as she patted Finn's cheek.

"Mom, would you mind if Rachel and I leave Beth with you for a little while this morning? I need to talk to Kurt, and I told him that I would call him at ten. I have the web camera set up over at Rachel's house so we could have a live video call over there."

"Sure son, Beth's used to spending Saturdays with me. I have some errands before our backyard bar-be-que tonight. I hope that Hiram and Leroy told you that we're cooking out over there tonight. Call before you come back to make sure we're here," Carole said scooping Beth up in her arms.

"Do you need the car seat out of Finn's truck?" Rachel asked.

"No, Beth and I have that all covered. Don't we Beth? She has a car seat with ponies on it in the back seat of my Mustang that stays in there," Carole said blowing a raspberry on Beth's cheek.

Finn and Rachel left Beth with Carole and went back to the Berry house to call Kurt and Blaine at ten.

"No one's home, we have just enough time for a quickie before we have to call Kurt," Finn said winking at Rachel as they came through the kitchen door.

"Finn Hudson, I haven't been alone with you for two weeks. I think I deserve more than a quickie," Rachel protested to her husband.

"Just think of it as an appetizer before the main course," Finn said burying his face into her neck and slipping the straps of her sundress down her arms.

"Okay, but tell me what you've planned for desert?" Rachel asked as Finn scooped her up bridal style and carried her up the stairs to their bedroom.

"You'll see" Finn said wickedly as he carried her into their bedroom and kicked the door shut behind them.

At 10:15 Kurt was waiting in New York for Finn to call. He was growing impatient so he decided to call Finn instead. On the sixth ring Finn answered the phone and was clearly out of breath.

"Heh- Heh- Hello?" Finn panted as he answered his phone.

"I don't have to ask what you were doing and why you didn't call me back at precisely ten o'clock." Kurt said perturbed.

"Beth slept between us last night, and why am I telling you this?" Finn said slowly catching his breath.

Rachel joined their video call, and she was as visibly out of breath as Finn was.

"I like what you're doing with your hair Rachel," Kurt said with a smirk. "Did you let Finn fix it for you? You look like you've been busy."

"Whatever," Rachel smirked back to Kurt. "Have you and Blaine found out anything new?"

"After we talked earlier, I contacted the police officer who came by the apartment on Monday. "Here's what he told me. One - The crime lab and the detectives have his report. The officer has checked Monty for a police record, and the man doesn't have one. Not even a parking ticket. Monty has lived in this building for twenty years and has worked for Building Maintenance almost as long."

"Two - The crime lab is backed up until the next millennium, and old blood stains aren't very high on their priorities list."

"Three - I'm going to call the company that maintains this building on Monday and see if they can tell me anything more about Monty or this building."

"Four - Blaine and I are going to try and meet some more of our neighbors. Maybe they can shed some light on what's been going on around here." Kurt finished.

"Has Monty been behaving himself since I left New York?" Rachel asked.

He has been doing his job and taking out all of the backed up garbage. I've passed him several times, and he's sober and he doesn't smell like booze. He's actually in a very good mood," Blaine answered.

"What are you going to do?" Kurt asked Finn.

"For now, I'm not going to mention Monty directly to Mom. She and Burt are coming over here tonight for a cook out and maybe Rachel and I can ask some more round- about questions about Grandpa Joe."

"Oh Rachel's backyard and that pool sound wonderful, I think it's going to be 95 degrees here in New York today," Blaine said with wistful look on his face.

"I heard something about you and Beth coming to New York in two weeks. Is that still the plan?" Kurt asked.

"That's the plan, but if Monty turns out to be an axe murderer or your building is haunted, I'll leave Beth here. I really want to check this guy and your building out for myself. Let me know if you hear anything else from the police, the crime lab, or building maintenance," Finn asked.

"We will," Kurt agreed. "We'll let you and Rachel get back to whatever it was that you were doing before I interrupted you," Kurt said with a big grin. "Ta-Ta for now."

After Finn shut down the computer he looked innocently at Rachel and asked, "When is Hiram and Leroy's T- time at the golf course?"

"Ten o'clock," Rachel answered with a smug grin on her face.

"Its ten thirty now. If they're playing eighteen holes, we have a lot of time to get back to whatever it was that we were doing," Finn said still seated in front of the computer.

"I have to have a shower first," Rachel said getting up from her seat at the computer.

"Mind if I join you?" Finn asked untying her robe, pulling her to him, and kissing her belly button.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Rachel purred as the robe hit the floor.

Later that evening, Burt and Carole came over for the cookout in the Berry's backyard. Sam and his siblings came too. Hiram and Leroy were manning the grill while Finn, Rachel and Beth played in the pool.

Finn was holding Beth in one arm while trying to wrap the other arm around Rachel for a kiss in the shallow end of the pool.

"No Mommy mine, no kissie," Beth protested as she beat her little hands on Finn's wet shoulder.

"Beth you have to learn to share. Mommy is mine too," Finn said softly to Beth.

"I'm yours only if you can catch me," Rachel laughed as she splashed Finn and swam off to the deep end of the pool.

Finn handed Beth to Sam and swam off after her. He caught up with Rachel under the diving board and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"What were you saying about being mine if I could catch you?" Finn asked as he and Rachel bobbed up and down in the water.

"Finn, I'll always be yours," Rachel said before she kissed him in the shadow of the diving board.

Everyone was having such a good time playing in the water and eating burgers and grilled corn. After dinner, Carole served the home made ice cream that she and Beth had made that afternoon.

Beth and Stacey were playing with their dolls in the shade while Sam and Stevie took turns doing cannonballs off of the diving board. Sam was making the biggest splashes.

Finn and Rachel were again swinging slowly in the hammock trying to absorb as much of each other as possible before Rachel had to leave the next day.

"Rach, I've got a surprise for you," Finn said into Rachel's ear between soft kisses on her head. "You know how Sam has been teaching me to read music and stuff? Well Sam and I have been working on a little song for you between customers down at the shop."

"What is it?" Rachel asked with her eyes growing big with excitement.

"I'll go get our guitars, and we'll show you. We had to change some of the words in the original song to make it work, but I hope you'll like it." Finn said getting up out of the hammock.

Finn signaled Sam who got out of the water and dried off. Returning with their guitars, Finn and Sam played while Finn serenaded Rachel,

"Hey there Rachel Hudson, what's it like in New York City?

I'm a thousand miles away

But girl tonight you look so pretty, yes you do

I swear it's true

Hey there Rachel Hudson, don't you worry about the distance

I'm right there if you get lonely give this song another listen

Close your eyes, listen to my voice it's my disguise

I'm by your side

Oh it's what you do to me,

Oh it's what you do to me,

Oh it's what you do to me,

Oh it's what you do to me,

What you do to me.

Hey there Rachel Hudson, I know times are getting hard

But just believe me girl; someday I pay the bills with this guitar

We'll have it good; we'll have the life we knew we would

My word is good.

Hey there Rachel Hudson, I've got so much left to say,

If every single song I wrote to you

Would take your breath away, I'd write it all

Even more in love with me you'd fall,

We'd have it all

Oh, it's what you do to me,

Oh, it's what you do to me,

Oh, it's what you do to me,

Oh, it's what you do to me,

What you do to me.

A thousand miles seems pretty far,

But they've got planes, and trains, and cars

I'd walk to you if I had no other way,

Our friends would all make fun of us

And we'll just laugh along because we know

That none of them have ever felt this way

Rachel Hudson, I can promise you

That by the time that we get through

This world will never ever be the same

And you're to blame.

Hey there Rachel Hudson,

You be good and don't you miss me

Three more years and you'll be done with school

And I'll be making history like I do

You know its all because of you

We can do whatever we want to do

Hey there Rachel Hudson here's to you

This ones for you

Oh it's what you do to me!

Oh it's what you do to me!

Oh it's what you do to me!

Oh it's what you do to me!

What you do to me.

-/-

Until chapter 9, thank you for all of the reviews, comments, suggestions, and alerts. Sincerely, Whistler Nights

_Hey There Delilah_ was written by Tom Higgenson and performed by The Plain White T's.

Thank you to glee 851 for suggesting that I incorporated this song into my story. It was a perfect idea!


	9. Chapter 9

**Hanging in Limbo - Chapter 9**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

Beth and Finn said goodbye to Rachel for a second time as she boarded the plane back to New York City. This time everyone came to wish her goodbye. Rachel and Finn had had a great weekend together, but as far as Monty, things were still undecided.

The plan at the moment was for Beth and Finn to visit Rachel in New York in two weeks. Finn was having reservations about bringing Beth because there was still so much about Monty and Rachel's apartment building that he didn't know.

Had there been murders in Rachel apartment or was it left over blood from the building's days as a morgue? Were the stains really blood in the first place? The building had been a lot of things over the years. What did Monty actually know? Was Monty covering up for himself or someone else? Were Rachel, Blaine, and Kurt in danger living there? And last but not least, was Monty the long lost older half-brother of Christopher Hudson? One thing was for certain, Finn was going to New York, and he was going to get some answers.

Finn sort of sleep- walked through his classes that Monday morning. He replayed moments from his weekend with Rachel over and over again in his mind. When he arrived at Burt's shop for work, his step-father even asked him why he still had a dopey grin on his face. Finn was working in the pit that afternoon, and Sam's oldies country music soon knocked him out of his mental Nirvana.

"Sam, I like country music as good as the next guy, but how many times are you going to play Hank Williams' _Your Cheating Heart_?" Finn almost yelled over the music.

"Finn, it's a country music classic, but I'll change the music and cut down the volume," Sam offered.

Soon Lady Antebellum's _Need You Now_ was flowing from Sam's I-Pod dock.

"Are you trying to kill me or something? Rachel just left, but I'm already missing her like crazy," Finn asked.

Sam only shook his head as he popped the hood of a red Ford.

The song ended and changed to Lady Antebellum's _I Run_ _To You_. Finn wondered if there was a new disaster waiting in New York.

An hour into their shift at Burt's tire shop, someone kept ringing the bell for service out at the desk. Sam looked out the bay door and immediately recognized Santana's car out front.

Sam walked over to Finn and asked "Where's Burt? Santana Lopez's car is parked out front."

"I think Burt's in the storage building doing inventory with the rep from the tire distributor. Wipe the grease off of your hands and go and see what she wants," Finn said mounting a new tire onto the rim.

"I'm not going out there. Since you're the guy that went all the way with her, I think that you should be the one to go and wait on her," Sam side stepped.

"Me, I know for a fact that you're not as innocent as you pretend," Finn laughed at Sam.

"You can't prove a thing," Sam laughed throwing a greasy rag at Finn.

"Okay, you big wimp, I'll go only because I'm a married man, but you finish this tire for me and put it on the blue Chevy," Finn smirked as he wiped the grease from his hands.

Finn entered the front showroom and there stood Santana and Brittany looking a set of the most expensive 20 inch chrome wheels Burt had to offer.

"It's about time someone in this place offered us some service. How much are these wheels?" Santana snapped at Finn.

"Are you thinking about dubs?" Finn asked Santana.

"Did he call me dumb?" Brittany asked Santana confused.

"No he said DUBS, not dumb," Santana tried to explain to Brittany.

"I'm sorry Brittany, dubs is a slang word for 20 inch wheels," Finn apologized.

Santana turned her attention to Finn and asked, "I heard that your little wifey came back into town for a conjugal visit over the weekend. How did that go?"

Brittany looked at Santana and asked naively, "I thought you said that she came home so they could have sex. You didn't say anything thing about conjugating verbs."

"Brittany, conjugal means a visit for having sex. It's what wives do when their man is in prison. It has nothing to do with conjugating verbs. That's what you do in English class. You don't have sex in English class, at least I don't," Santana corrected her friend.

"Actually Mrs. Johnson's classroom has that great storage room in the back, and I didn't know that Finn was in prison. Did he just get out?" Brittany asked before Santana cut her off.

"Finn, I'm here because my dad says that I need a new set of wiper blades. Can you handle that?" Santana asked turning to Finn.

"Sure, let me check the book for the model number, and I'll be right back with a new set," Finn said trying not to laugh at his customers.

"Is Sam hiding in the back?" Santana asked Finn.

"Did Sam just get out of prison too?" Brittany interrupted.

"Sam's working in the back," Finn bit his lip trying to keep from laughing while they were there.

After the girls left, Finn went back to the pit and cut Sam's music off.

"Why did you do that?" Sam asked pulling his head out from under the hood of the Ford.

"Because this story is too good to tell with background music," Finn doubled over laughing.

Finn went on to tell the whole crew about his visit from Brittany and Santana except he greatly exaggerated the details.

Finn was still smiling to himself when he came home that night. Between remembering his weekend with Rachel, and retelling the Brittany and Santana story he was in a good mood. Sharon had finished preparing their dinner and was ready to head home herself.

"Good news, Finn. Beth made her potty sing today, and she didn't do it with a cup of water either! We're making progress," Sharon told Finn.

"Great!" Finn said scooping Beth up and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Do you think she'll be out of diapers if I decide to take her with me to New York in two weeks? I really don't want to drag a sack of diapers onto the plane."

"No you'll still need to take some diapers, especially some for night time," Sharon said waving good bye to Beth.

"She's such a sound sleeper. Should I wake her up to go to the bathroom at night?" Finn asked.

"No just put her in a diaper at night and we'll work on that later," Sharon said going out the door.

After dinner Finn gave Beth her bath and dressed her for bed. Then Finn, Rachel, and Beth had their nightly web cam visit. Beth told Rachel about making her potty sing before she ran off to find one of her granddads for a bedtime story.

"Rach, I've got to tell you about Brittany and Santana. Finn laughed. They came by the shop and poor Brittany hasn't changed," Finn laughed again.

"What were those two doing at the tire store?" Rachel asked surprised.

"They came by for windshield wiper blades, but I think Santana was looking for Sam."

"As long as she wasn't looking for you," Rachel frowned.

"Have you found out anything else about Monty?" Finn asked changing the subject.

"Blaine and Kurt met the Yamatos across the hall, and they didn't know anything about our apartment. They said that Monty did his job and they didn't have any complaints."

Building Management said that Monty had been a steady worker for almost twenty years, and they only had a few complaints.

"What were the complaints for?" Finn asked.

"You can guess. Sometimes he can't be found and the trash piles up. One tenant thought she saw him drinking on the job. The management company said that it was minor stuff considering how long he has been here."

"Has the crime lab been by?" Finn asked.

"Nope, no one has seen them. Like Kurt said, I think our suspicions are a low priority for them considering their work load," Rachel sighed in exasperation.

"Rach, I've thought about our weekend all day, and I can't wait until I see you again in two weeks," Finn reminisced.

"It was fabulous," Rachel confessed. "I do hope that you will bring Beth with you when you come in two weeks.

Kurt and Blaine have been to Goodwill and the consignments shops, and they're getting ready for Beth. Blaine found a nearly new Pack and Play. He's so proud of it, but don't mention that it's blue to him. Kurt came in with one of those chairs that you clamp onto the kitchen table to use as a high chair. I bought a used stroller so we can push her around Central Park. Send me a list of what you need for her at the grocery story, and we'll get it. That way you won't have to bring it on the plane," Rachel suggested.

Their video chat continued on lazily for a little while longer until Rachel said that she had to go and study for her mid-terms. He mid-term with Zelda was Wednesday morning and she wanted to practice singing _Memory_ a few more times. She felt good about all of her other classes, but she still hadn't been able to figure Zelda out. The woman was certainly a mystery.

They said their goodbyes and then Rachel climbed out onto the fire escape. Rachel looked up at what she could see of the night sky before she took a deep breath and sang _Memory_ to the best of her ability. Surely that would be good enough for Zelda.

But before she came back in her thoughts returned to Finn serenading her two nights earlier in the backyard. How did she get so lucky to find a man that would not only learn a song for her, but would sing it in front of both their families?

With a smile on her face, she began to sing _Hey There_ _Delilah _except it was _Hey There Rachel Hudson_ the way Finn had sang it to her. When she finished she crawled back through the window into the apartment for the night.

Once again like clock work, someone else had been listening. They were waiting for Monty make his nightly trip out with the trash, but Rachel's voice made it even more the reason to be there.

On Wednesday morning Rachel raised her hand when Zelda asked who was ready to sing their assigned song first.

Rachel's voice started low, but rose and soared with the chorus. Rachel watched her teacher as she sang, and Zelda looked almost entranced by her voice and the melody.

Rachel concluded the song, but was shocked when Zelda herself lead the critical critique of Rachel's effort.

Stunned, Rachel held back her tears and challenged Zelda assessment of her performance.

"Zelda, _Memories_ is such a timeless classic. It would be wrong to try and reinterpret it into something that would only be something less. It's the most memorable song from the longest running Broadway show ever."

"Ms. Hudson, you are not here to mimic your predecessors, but to surpass them. If you are not up to the challenge then maybe you don't belong here," Zelda scolded Rachel before she gathered up her papers and left for the day.

That night Rachel spent most of hers and Finn's web cam chat beating herself up over what Zelda had said to her. "Finn I don't understand. I thought Zelda was beginning to like me, but something has changed. She's not going to like anything that I do no matter what."

Rachel's fears were confirmed when Zelda's teacher assistant passed back the mid-term essays. Rachel had received a B on her essay, but Zelda hadn't spared the criticism in her remarks.

Their days apart drug on. Monday through Saturday was not so bad for Finn because he had Beth, and school, and work. It was Sundays that were the worst for him. If his school work was caught up, he spent the day with Beth. They would go to the park or just hang out in the backyard. Finn was trying to teach her the basics of swimming.

Rachel didn't have Beth to distract her on her loneliest days, so she buried her head in her books counting the days until she and her little family where together again.

On the Thursday before Finn and Beth had planned on going to New York, Finn finally decided to bring her. He was also pleased when Rachel told him that Blaine and Kurt had changed their plans and were heading to Lima that weekend. She, Finn, and Beth would have the apartment all to themselves.

Finn was a little nervous about Beth's first airplane trip. He packed toys, snacks, and her car seat for the plane ride. He prayed they she didn't cry the whole way.

He was pleasantly surprised at how well she did. When the plane hit a patch of turbulence outside New York City, Beth giggled loudly and said, "Again, again!"

Rachel was waiting for them at baggage claim. Finn had his arms full with Beth, her things, and her car seat.

When Rachel saw them she didn't know who to kiss first, Finn or Beth so she kissed Finn while hugging Beth.

"No no, squishing me!" Beth protested. Rachel broke the kiss and took Beth from Finn's arms.

"Is everything 'no' with you these days?" Rachel asked Beth.

"What can I say, they don't call it the terrible twos for nothing," Finn grinned while grabbing their bags from the luggage carousel.

Rachel stopped a taxi, and Finn buckled the car seat into the back seat for Beth. Soon they were pulling up in front of her building. Monty saw the taxi out front and hurried to help the driver unload the luggage.

Finn paid the taxi driver and turned to thank the Good Samaritan who had helped them. Finn was speechless when he was now face to face with Monty Montgomery.

Monty was just as astounded, "Your wife said that we looked alike, but this is uncanny."

Finn blinked a few times and then held his hand out to Monty. "I'm Finn Hudson, and this is our daughter Beth, you must be Monty. It's nice meet you."

"Likewise," Monty said shaking Finn's hand.

Neither man said another word to each other as they carried the luggage and Beth's car seat up the steps. Even Beth seemed confused when she looked at Finn and Monty side by side.

"Thanks man," Finn said as he offered Monty a twenty dollar bill for his help.

"No, I was happy to help," Monty said setting the luggage down in Rachel's apartment.

"Is it possible that we could be related?" Finn asked Monty. "Rachel has shown me pictures of you and copies of your mother's letters," Finn asked.

"I don't know, but you look like I did twenty years ago. Maybe we can talk some more while you're in New York," Monty offered.

"Sure," Finn said still amazed at seeing Monty face to face.

Monty closed the door behind him and left Finn, Rachel, and Beth in the apartment.

"Rach, I knew that he looked like me from the pictures that you brought, but this is amazing," Finn said to Rachel.

"I told you so, except for the age difference, you two could almost be twins. At least I know what my husband is going to look like in twenty years if you keep yourself in shape," Rachel teased poking Finn in the gut.

Rachel had set the Pack and Play up in Kurt and Blaine's room. She and Finn would be out in the living room which was now her bed room. Finn found his way to the new living room which was Rachel's old bedroom.

"Where are the stains?" Finn asked looking around.

"Pull the carpet back. It's the loosest over in that corner," Rachel said pointing.

As Finn pulled the carpet back he was hit with a faint death smell.

"It's not so bad now; the AC has been working steadily. If it goes off and it heats up in here the smell is pretty bad. The stains on the walls and ceiling are most noticeable after dark when you can use the black light. I try not to do that," Rachel said heading back out of her old bedroom.

Beth was finding her way around the apartment while Rachel and Finn cuddled on her bed. Beth tried to go into Rachel's old room but the door was closed.

"No, baby stay out here with us," Rachel said pulling Beth up onto the bed with them. "There's a vegan restaurant a few block over, and then I want to take you two to Central Park after dinner," Rachel suggested. I found a nice used one, and Monty's letting me store in on the first floor. Kurt scrubbed it so you know that it's clean."

"Rachel we need to talk about Monty. You're right; he does look like me and his story checks out, but what do you think? Even if he's the nicest guy on Earth, I'm concerned about introducing him to Mom. She has finally let go of the past, and she's happy."

"Finn, spend some time with Monty and get to know him. You don't have to ever introduce him to your mom if you don't want to. But if he is your dad's half-brother, I think your mom would feel like you cheated her in the end," Rachel said snuggling into Finn's warm chest.

"You're probably right as usual," Finn said kissing Rachel's forehead. "Let me get to know him a little better first. If all else fails we can do one of those DNA test to find out if he really is my uncle."

Downstairs they found Monty sweeping the front steps of the building. "Monty, we're going out for some dinner and then to Central Park, could you get the baby stroller out of the storage room for me please?" Rachel asked.

"Sure thing," Monty said putting the broom down and searching his key ring for the right key. He brought the stroller out and dusted it off before Finn sat Beth in it. Beth immediately loved something different.

"Monty, I'd like to talk with you sometime while I'm here," Finn asked.

"I want to talk to you too," Monty said. "I'm on the clock right now, but tomorrow's Saturday so I'll just be on call if you would like to meet up then."

"That sounds like a plan," Finn said offering Monty his hand. Both men shook hands and that was when Rachel noticed that they were smiling at each other with the same one sided smile. Monty's one dimple and Finn's two dimples were also showing.

Finn walked off down the street pushing Beth in the stroller while Rachel linked her arm in his.

"Rach, I know that you're going to think I'm crazy, but I do feel a connection to Monty. I felt like I've know him for years." Finn confessed. "I just hope that it isn't just wishful thinking."

"I don't think so, Monty looked like he was touching a part of his history that he never knew existed when he shook your hand," Rachel smiled up at Finn.

They had dinner and then made their way to the park. RAchel carried Beth over to one of the carriage rides to intoduce Beth to her first horse. Beth didn't know what to think when she saw the horse. She looked at Rachel and then asked, "Doggie?"

"No Beth, it's not a doggie, can you say horsey?" Finn chuckled.

Beth wrinkled up her nose and said 'horsey' as she reached to pet the horse's neck.

They took Beth to ride a carousel horse on the Central Park Carousel. "This is a horsey too. A big toy horsey," Rachel told her daughter. Beth patted the carousel horse and said 'horsey' again.

That night in bed, Rachel was sleeping on Finn's shoulder. Finn couldn't get to sleep. The noises of the city and the events of the day were keeping him awake. Finally he woke up Rachel.

"Rach, twenty-four hours ago, I was sitting in Lima, Ohio and now look at me. I'm in the largest city in the country with maybe a possible uncle downstairs. It's all so much that I can't sleep."

"I know, it's a lot to wrap your brain around in one day, but try and get some sleep. I've got a big day in New York planned for us tomorrow, and you and Monty are going to have a talk. If you can't sleep, think about what you want to ask him. I know that he probably has a lot of questions for you too."

"You're right, I have so much to think about, but right now just being beside you cancels that out," Finn said pulling Rachel a little closer to him.

-/-

Until chapter 10, thank you for reading and reviewing! I really appreciate it! The next chapter will be about Finn and Monty's talk and their day in New York. Sincerely, Whistler Nights


	10. Chapter 10 Actions Speak Louder Than Wor

**Actions Speak Louder Than Words – Chapter 10**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters.)

**Warning**: This chapter contains violence, harsh language, and multiple deaths. Rating has been changed to M.

-/-

On Saturday morning Rachel and Finn were up early. Beth hadn't figured out how escape from the blue Pack and Play in Kurt and Blaine's room and she was crying loudly.

"How did you sleep, baby girl?" Finn cooed to Beth as he wiped the tears from her face. "Are you hungry? How did you like Uncle Kurt's room?"

"It is kind of scary in here," Finn said almost to himself looking around the room. It was obvious which half of the room was Kurt's and which half was Blaine's. Blaine's side looked like a guy's room, and Kurt's side looked like his and Kurt's original room in the Hummel basement, only worse.

"We need to get a head start if we're going to see everything that I have planned for today," Rachel said spooning some oatmeal into Beth.

"Rachel, you're going to be here three maybe four years going to school. Then you have Broadway ahead of you. We have plenty of time to see it all. Beth's just two years old, and she still needs her afternoon nap. I would like to sit down and have a talk with Monty while we're here. How about it if you pick one thing near here, and let's do that this morning? I want to see it all with you, just not in one day," Finn suggested.

"Okay Finn, I see your point," Rachel agreed. "The Children's Museum of Manhattan is close by and it'll probably take all morning. Everything else on my list will require a taxi cab and a car seat, and I really would like for you to have a sit down talk with Monty."

"Thanks Babe," Finn said leaning down to give Rachel a quick kiss before he headed for the shower.

"Finn, I forgot to tell you, but the water's rusty and the hot water is very cold when you first turn it on," Rachel said as she stuck her head in the bathroom door.

"Oh, I wish you had told me that two minutes ago," Finn said as he struck his head around the shower curtain. His teeth were chattering.

"I'm sorry; just like the AC it takes a while for the hot water to get up here. Most days I have a luke warm shower," Rachel apologized.

When Rachel returned to the kitchen, Beth had dumped her oatmeal out and was having a good time playing in it.

"Leave the shower running when you get through," Rachel yelled at Finn through the shower curtain.

"Are you getting in?" Finn asked.

"We have to give your daughter a bath," Rachel shouted back while Finn looked around the shower curtain to see Rachel and Beth with oatmeal all over both of them.

Finn laughed and said, "My daughter? What happened to our daughter? Haven't you learned that you can't leave her alone with food?"

As Finn was getting dressed, Rachel advised him to wear his most comfortable walking shoes, "New York is a walking city, and will you please put some sunscreen on Beth? While you're doing that I'll call Monty and have him get the stroller out of the storage room downstairs."

Downstairs they met Monty with the stroller ready to go.

"Thanks for getting that out for us," Finn said to Monty. "We'll be back for lunch if you'd like to get together and talk. Beth will be taking her afternoon nap this afternoon."

"I don't want to take you away from your family since you're only going to be here for a few days, but I really would like to ask you a few questions," Monty asked.

"I have some questions for you too," Finn nodded. "Rachel has your number in her cell phone; I'll call you when Beth goes down for her nap."

They headed in the direction of the Children's Museum of Manhattan with Finn pushed Beth's stroller with one hand while holding Rachel's hand with the other.

"I'm sorry that I booked this afternoon to get together with Monty. I would much rather take a nap with you while Beth's takes her nap," Finn apologized with a smile.

"It's alright. You need to sit down and talk this out with Monty before you go back to Lima. We still have tonight," Rachel smiled up at Finn.

Arriving at the museum Finn had to check Beth's stroller at the door. Getting a map, Rachel took Beth to the Playworks area on the third floor first. Beth was a little afraid of Alphy the talking baby dragon that ate alphabet blocks at first, but she took right off on the crawling obstacle course. Finn whined until Rachel agreed to let him take Beth out to the City Splash area.

Rachel stood back and took pictures of Finn and Beth racing their boats down the water chutes. Carole was going to love these pictures of her son. Finn was the biggest kid there. When they finished Finn was wet and Beth was soaking wet. It was time to head back to the apartment for a sandwich.

After lunch Rachel gave her cell phone to Finn so he could call Monty. She would get Beth into a dry sleeper and put her down for a nap. While Finn was gone and Beth was sleeping Rachel was going to work on her assignments for Introduction to Musical Theater. She had never made a B before in her life, and she had to pull it up before finals.

Finn knocked on Monty's door and was surprised by how cool his apartment was.

"Man are you hogging all the AC down here," Finn asked when Monty opened the door.

"Nah, my apartment is right above the HVAC unit in the basement. The noise from it helps to drown out the noise from the street, but the first floor is always cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter," Monty said inviting Finn in.

"Can I get you something to drink? I know that you're probably underage, but I have soda and water," Monty asked.

"A soda will be just fine," Finn said as he noticed the copied newspaper clippings about the Viet Nam War that were thumb tacked to the wall.

Monty returned with the soda and offered Finn a seat. "We both know why we're here; would you like to go first?" Monty asked point blank.

"Before we get into anything, I just want to tell you that I have the best, most tender-hearted mom in the world at home. She took losing Dad very hard, and it took her years to get over it. She has finally made peace with the past, and is happy. If telling her about you will cause her even a moment's pain, I won't do it," Finn explained.

"What do you mean?" Monty asked.

"I'm afraid that when she sees you, it's going to bring up too much of the past. She says that I look just like my dad, and you look like a forty year old version of me. I don't want her to think that the ghosts from the past have come back."

"Actually, I'm forty-five. If you're uncomfortable telling her about me, then please don't. She doesn't ever have to know that I exist," Monty said with a hint of sadness to his voice.

"But if you really are my uncle, I want to know you," Finn said. "All my life I have felt like there was a piece who I am that was missing. I'm not asking for you to replace my dad because you can't, but I think both of us might be good for each other. I have lost so much, and you have lost even more."

"Finn, I don't have much of money. Just a few thousand dollars in the bank and a paid-up burial insurance policy. If you think that I might be your dad's half-brother, then I'm willing to pay for one of those DNA tests that you see advertised on TV. I have no one in this world, and the possibility that I might have someone is worth the money to me. And if you think I am trying to latch onto your family tree for your money or something like that, I'm not. I make a good wage here, and I'm happy doing what I do," Monty said trying to reassure Finn of his intentions.

"No, I never thought that. My mom works shifts at the hospital. She drives a ten year old car, and up until recently we lived in a shoe box of a house. She recently married Kurt's dad, and they bought a bigger house for all of us. It's mortgaged to the max," Finn told Monty.

Finn paused and then redirected his questions. "Now that we've set the ground rules, why don't you tell me everything that you know about your dad?" Finn asked.

"I don't know a lot because my mom, Margaret Montgomery would never talk about my dad. I didn't know that much about him until after she died, and I found all of those letters and newspaper clippings. All I know is that they were seeing each other before he was shipped off to Viet Nam after basic training. From the letter that his buddy sent to her, my dad was captured by the Viet Kong on his first patrol after he got there. All of her letters to him were returned by the Army, and since they weren't married, the Army never told her anything. She wouldn't have known that he was a POW if she hadn't contacted his Army buddy after the war was over. What hurt her the most was that my father never contacted her when the war ended and the POWs came home."

"If this guy Joe in these letters really is my Grandpa Joe, I might be able to answer that. From what my mom has told me, Grandpa Joe was brain washed in addition to being beaten and tortured by the Viet Kong. My Grandma Ann met him in the hospital, and she said that he was pretty messed up at the time. He spent months at Walter Reid Army Hospital and then a longer time in a psychiatric hospital. She said that he recovered from his physical injuries, but he never fully healed from the mental ones. I'm not making excuses for my grandfather, but it's possible that he lost his memories of those years."

"Tell me what you remember about him," Monty asked.

"Grandpa Joe and Grandma Ann lived on her father's dairy farm outside of Lima. Except for Grandma Ann, Mom, and me, he preferred the company of animals over people. They had a storm cellar for tornadoes and storms. Whenever he heard the first crack of thunder, he would huddle us into that cellar. The man was never really still, but when he was his hands trembled," Finn told Monty.

"How long has he been dead?" Monty asked.

"He died when I was about ten, and Grandma Ann died not long after that. The farm had belonged to Grandma Ann's father. When it was sold, everything went for back taxes and bills. They're both buried in Lima," Finn said sadly.

"Do you have any pictures of him?" Monty asked Finn.

"I brought what I could find without Mom realizing that they were missing. Here's one of Grandpa Joe and my dad right before Dad left for Desert Storm. If you notice my dad is smiling, and Grandpa Joe looks like he's about to cry," Finn said handing him the picture.

Monty studied the picture for a few moments. "Do you mind if I take this picture down the street and have a copy made of it? I'll get it back to you before you head home tomorrow," Monty asked.

"Sure, just get it back to me so I can put it back before Mom notices that's it gone." Finn paused a moment before he asked Monty the other question that was on his mind.

"Monty, can you tell me anything about Rachel's apartment upstairs? She pulled the carpet up looking for that smell and the hardwood floor is stained with something that looks like blood."

"My wife Anya and I lived in apartment 333 when we were first married. She was in this country with The Royal Ballet of Russia. She was their Prima Ballerina. I met her while working at the Gershwin. We were both teen-agers, and she thought she wanted to defect to the United States. This was during the Cold War before the Russian Block broke up. The US Embassy wouldn't grant her asylum so we ran off and got married so she could get a green card and stay in this country."

Monty continued, "We were happy at first, but The Royal Ballet soon replaced her as their Prima Ballerina and returned to Moscow without her. That's when reality hit her. She was treated like royalty in Russia and in this country she wasn't. The American critics gave her bad reviews. They all said that she was too tall to be a leading ballerina. She became angry and depressed, and she took it out on me. That blood on the floor in the apartment is mine. Anya was in a rage one night and threw a knife at me among other things. She hit me in the neck with the knife and then ran out. You can still see the scar right over my collar bone. That was the last time that I ever saw her. If Miss Sallie's son Marcus hadn't heard the noise and found me I would have bled to death."

"I have tried everything to get that stain out of the wood, but nothing works short of replacing the boards. As for the smell, I think that a rat must have died under the floor. I use a lot of rat poison in the basement, and this building is old. The rats come in from the sewers," Monty concluded.

"Do you have anything else that you would like to know about me?" Monty asked Finn.

"Not at the moment, and I really need to get back upstairs to Rachel and Beth. Our plane doesn't leave until two tomorrow afternoon if you have anything else that you would like to ask me," Finn offered as he got up to leave.

"I'll be here, and I'll make sure that I get this photo of your dad and your grandfather back to you before you leave," Monty said offering Finn his hand.

"There's one more thing in case Rachel and her friends didn't tell you, I drink," Monty said forthrightly. "I don't drink everyday, but when the loneliness and the loss get the best of me, I drink too much. I'm not proud of it. I try to be a harmless drunk, but I have done some things that I really don't remember, and I have sobered up in some strange places. It doesn't happen very often, but it has happened."

"Monty, you didn't have to tell me that, I already knew it. Thank you for being straight with me," Finn said returning Monty's handshake.

Upstairs Beth was still asleep, and Finn was met by the smell of vegetable lasagna in the oven.

"Hi, Babe," Rachel greeted Finn with a quick kiss. "We've been eating out so much; I thought that I would cook tonight. There's an ice cream shop near by that sells vegan ice cream if you would like to go out later this evening."

"That sounds like a great idea. Has Beth been asleep the whole time that I've been gone?" Finn asked.

"She finally went down after two and a half stories. How did your visit with Monty go? Did you find out what you wanted to know?" Rachel asked.

"I think so. He isn't claiming to be my uncle, but he would like to know if he has any family in the world. He didn't know a lot about his dad until after his mother died. Monty married this Russian dancer who basically used him to get a green card, and then she ran out on him."

"Monty told me that the blood stains on the hardwood floor in your room are his. On the night that she left she threw a knife at him and it hit him in the neck. He has a nasty scar to show for it. If Miss Sallie's son Marcus hadn't heard all the noise and found him he would have bled to death."

"Miss Sallie told me about their fights and how she would curse him in Russian and throw dishes at him," Rachel said shaking her head.

"Well apparently she threw more than dishes," Finn said sadly.

"Finn, do you think he's your uncle?"

"I'm almost certain of it. He told you the POW story before he ever knew anything about my family, and it checks out with what Mom told me about my Grandpa Joe. He also has those old letters from Viet Nam. And he and I look too much alike for it to be a coincidence," Finn said nodding his head.

"Are you going to tell your mom about him?" Rachel asked.

"I haven't decided. The drinking bothers me, but maybe if he had a connection to someone, the loneliness wouldn't have such a hold on him, and he wouldn't feel the need to drink. I just hope that Kurt and Blaine don't let it slip while they're in Lima this weekend."

"Kurt knows how important this is to you, and I asked him not to say anything before he left," Rachel reassured Finn.

"Thanks Rach, you think of everything," Finn smiled at her.

Finn, Rachel, and Beth were eating their dinner when they heard the last faltering gasps of the air conditioning before it quit.

"Oh, no!" Rachel fumed, "Not now! That thing goes out at the worst possible times. I'll call Monty, and see if he can fix that pile of scrap metal one more time."

"Rachel, it's okay. Beth and I are used to warm weather and you have two box fans," Finn said trying to appease Rachel.

Rachel called Monty while Finn finished feeding Beth and clearing the table.

"Monty says the AC in the whole building is off, and the HVAC's problems are beyond his expertise this time. It's after five on a Saturday so getting a repair man here now would require an act of congress."

"Like I said, it's no big deal for us. We can take a walk around the neighborhood and get some of that ice cream that you were talking about," Finn reminded her. "If it gets too hot, we can sit out on your fire escape. That's something I've never done before. You can show me where you sit when you look up at the moon the same time that I do."

After dinner the three went down to the lobby to retrieve the stroller. The door to the basement was open, and they could hear someone banging down there.

Finn called down the steps, "Do you need a hand, I know a thing or two about fixing cars and water heaters?"

Monty walked to the base of the steps and called up to Finn, "I don't think this thing has any more life in it. It's time for the owners of this building to buy a new unit. I have nursed this thing along for years, but the compressor is shot. I'll get an AC man out here as soon as possible, but it looks hopeless to me. Thanks, anyway."

"No problem man," Finn said as they left to find the ice cream shop that Rachel had been talking about.

After their ice cream they walked for a while and just enjoyed the New York night.

"Finn, do you think you and Beth could really be happy living here in New York?" Rachel asked looking up at Finn.

"We would be happy any place that you are. We'll have the best of both worlds. Living in the city, and going home to Lima to visit the grandparents," Finn smiled down at Rachel.

"I like the sound of that," Rachel sighed. "I know that your Mom couldn't be happier now that she has a grandchild."

"You know that she's already hinting for another one," Finn joked.

"I know, and someday we'll give your mom another one, just not right away. Beth deserves her time being the baby, and she's going to make a great big sister. That's if we ever get her out of the terrible twos," Rachel said looking down at Beth who was sound asleep in the stroller.

"It looks like someone is ready for bed," Finn whispered turning the stroller around and heading back to the apartment.

Finn wedged Kurt and Blaine's box fan into the bedroom window while Rachel got Beth ready for bed. Beth stirred a little, but she was clearly out for the night as Rachel tucked her into the Pack and Play.

Closing the bedroom door, Rachel and Finn then went out to the living room that was now Rachel's bedroom. Finn retrieved the other box fan from Rachel's old room and jammed it into the living room window.

"Rach, would you like to sit out on the fire escape while it cools off in here?" Finn asked. "I brought a magnum of champagne that Puck gave me. Actually I had it when you were home, but Beth ended up sleeping with us. Then I forgot all about it and it was hot," Finn laughed.

"Is that where that bottle of champagne in the frig came from?" I wasn't sure if Blaine or Kurt had put it in there. I don't have any wine glasses, but I do have some vegan friendly cheese and some crackers," Rachel said offering Finn a quick kiss on the lips.

Finn helped Rachel out onto the fire escape through the window in Rachel's old room.

"It's nice out here," Finn said as he opened the champagne. "Puck never told me where he got this stuff, and I didn't ask."

"Good ole Puck. He can usually come up with about anything that's illegal," Rachel laughed as Finn poured the champagne into the paper cups.

"I'm glad that you and Puck are friends again," Rachel said wistfully as she sipped her champagne.

"We'll never be the best friends that we once were, but I'm glad that we can be regular friends for Beth's sake. Besides you're my best friend now," Finn declared as Rachel sat down between his knees on the step below him.

The two weren't accustomed to the effects of the champagne and we're becoming sillier as the evening wore on. They sang and drank and slowly became fairly drunk.

"Rach, I'm sorry, but I gotta pee, and then I need a nap," Finn slurred as he emptied the bottle into his paper cup.

"Wait on me, I'm going with you," Rachel mumbled as the two staggered back through the window leaving it open behind them.

They fell back on top of Rachel's comforter and were soon sound asleep in each other's arms.

The night wore on as they slept off the effects of the champagne. They were sleeping peacefully as the box fan filled the room with cool air. Around three in the morning they were startled by a loud noise in Rachel's old room. Finn sat up the same time Rachel did. He told her to stay there as he went to investigate.

Walking into Rachel's old bedroom it was hard to see. The only light was coming from the flashing red and green neon light across the street. Reaching for the light switch Finn suddenly felt a red hot searing pain hit him in his side.

"Rachel, RUN!" We're the last words Rachel head Finn yell before she heard a thud and then the sounds of someone hitting the floor.

Running into the room Rachel flipped on the lights to see someone raise one of Blaine's dumb bells over their head to strike Finn again.

"NO!" screamed Rachel at the top of her lungs. The figure turned and Rachel could now see who the intruder was.

"Zelda!" Rachel screamed in horror.

Zelda turned back to Finn who was not moving on the floor. Zelda raised the dumb bell even higher and prepared to strike Finn again when she stopped in mid-blow.

Zelda froze with the dumb bell held high over her head when she saw Finn's face. "Monty! What have I done?" Zelda screamed when she saw who she thought was Monty on the floor.

"Please don't hit him again, can't you see that he's dead," Rachel begged frantically.

Turning around to face Rachel, Zelda screamed at her, "You! This is all yours and Monty's fault! This is our home and the two of you have defiled it! He wouldn't be lying there if it weren't for you!

Rachel's mind was racing, but in her panic she made the connection. Zelda was Anya and Anya was Zelda!

"Zelda, it's me Rachel Hudson from your class at Juilliard. Monty's okay, he's downstairs. That's my husband Finn Hudson."

"Liar!" Zelda screamed at Rachel with even more force. "Do you think I don't know my own husband when I see him? Look at what you have made me do to him! I know who you are! You're just another street walking whore like all the others! Monty wouldn't wait for me! He had to bring his whores up here! Here to our home! I'll have to get rid of you just like I got rid of all the others!"

"If that's what you want then please kill me, just please don't hit him again. He's innocent," Rachel begged holding her hands up.

"If that's what you want, then you shall have it!" Zelda screamed as she dropped the dumb bell beside Finn's lifeless body and pulled the knife from his side. When she did it was like pulling a cork from a bottle. The blood escaped from Finn's side even faster.

Rachel stood there paralized prepared to die to save Finn and Beth who was still sleeping in Kurt's room. Closing her eyes, she heard a key turn in the front door and suddenly Monty shoved her aside and was standing between her and Zelda.

"Anya don't!" Monty screamed before she could lunge at Rachel. "Anya it's me Monty! You've come back!"

Anya looked at Finn's pale body and then at Monty, "You sir are also a liar! Just like your little whore! My husband was never an old man like you!"

"No Anya, it's really me, Monty. It's been over twenty years. See I have the scar on my neck to prove it," Monty said pulling his shirt collar back. You hit me with a kitchen knife, but I survived. Why have you waited so long to come?"

"I've come back before, but you always had your dirty little whores living in our apartment. You wouldn't wait for me, so I had to get rid of them for you," Anya said lowering the bloody knife.

Rachel watched in horror as Anya/Zelda stood between her and Finn. Finn didn't move, and he was slowly being surrounded by a pool of his own blood.

"Anya, how many times have you come back?" Monty asked.

"This is the fourth time that I have come to save you from your whores. This one will be the fourth one," Anya said pointing the knife covered in Finn's blood at Rachel.

"What happened to the first three?" Monty asked.

"The first two got away, but that was years ago. I made quick work of the third one," Anya said turning the knife restlessly in her hand.

"What happened to number three?" Monty asked her.

"I wrapped her carefully in her clothes and dumped her down the trash chute in garbage bags," Anya answered unmoved.

"Bags?" Monty asked.

Yes, she was too big to get down the trash chute, so I had to put her down it in pieces. It took most the night. I was almost finished when the neighbors started moving out in the hall at dawn. I had to get rid of the last of her so I pulled up the floor boards in our bed room. Her hands are under there," Anya said pointing to the blood stained floor.

"How long ago was this?" Monty asked.

"Not long ago," Anya answered unblinking.

"Why?" He asked her trying not to let her see him shaking.

"For us," Anya replied lowering her voice.

From the other bedroom, Beth was waking up from all of the noise and screaming. She immediately started crying "Mommy, Daddy," at the top of her lungs.

Anya heard the baby's cries and immediately straightened to her full height.

"So you and one of your whores made a baby did you?" Anya screamed at Monty "Is it this one? Is this whore the one? I wouldn't give you a baby so you found yourself a whore who would? I'll fix it so the two of you never make another one."

Anya raised the knife again and started toward Rachel. Monty lunged and knocked Anya to the floor. The knife flew and Rachel ran to Finn's side.

When Anya hit the floor, her head hit the dumb bell that was lying beside Finn. Her eyes rolled back as a deep gash on the back of head began bleeding. Blood was trickling from her nose and from one ear.

"Anya, where have you been? I have waited all this time." Monty asked Anya as he knelt beside her.

"I never left. I have watched you almost every night when you took out the trash cans. I am your wife. Why did you stop me from killing her?" Anya gasped trying to breathe.

"You stopped being my wife, the moment you hurt my family," Monty said as he stepped away from the dying woman.

Anya took her last breath and was gone.

"Monty, call 911. Finn is badly hurt," Rachel screamed trying to find Finn's pulse.

As they waited for the police and the paramedics, Rachel asked Monty, "How did you know to come?"

"Miss Sallie called me and said that there was trouble in your apartment. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to find her granddaughter Hannah peeking out their door."

"Beth, I forgot about Beth," Rachel was near hysterical as she continued to hold pressure on Finn's side.

Monty left but soon returned. "Hannah and Miss Sallie have her over at their place."

"Good," Rachel cried inconsolably, "I don't want Beth to remember her daddy like this."

-/- Until the next chapter, please keep reviewing and thank you to all of you who have! I do appreciate your feed back and suggestions. Sincerely, Whistler Nights.


	11. Chapter 11 From Out Of The Ashes

**From Out of the Ashes – Chapter 11**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. All names are fictitious and appear only by coincidence.)

Forty-eight hours after Zelda/Anya had attacked Finn, he regained consciousness with a blinding headache. His head was bandaged and he could hear the beeping of machines all around him. Opening his eyes his vision was blurry, but he could make out two women sleeping with their heads resting on the either side of his bed. He was attached to an assortment of wires, monitors, and IV tubes.

He tried to raise his head, but his headache and the fiery incision in his side stopped him. He tried to curl his fingers, but found that they were interlaced with the fingers of the two women who were holding vigil at his bedside.

"Rach, are you there?" Finn choked from his dry throat.

"Finn, I'm here! Carole wake up! Finn's awake."

"Mom? What are you doing here? Where am I?" Finn's voice was raspy, and it was hard to speak. "Where's Beth?"

"Baby, you're in an ICU unit in a New York hospital. Do you remember anything?" Carole asked her son.

"Not really, but my head is killing me, what happened? Why are you here and not in Lima?" Finn coughed, "Is Beth okay?"

"Finn, Anya came back. Anya was really Zelda, my professor at Juilliard.

"Was?" Finn asked reaching for the bandage on his head, but it was hard to lift his right arm.

"She tried to kill us, but Monty stopped her. He saved our lives."

"That's not entirely true," Monty said getting up for a chair outside Finn's open door. "Rachel offered Anya her life to keep her from finishing you off."

"Monty?" Finn asked in confusion as he looked at his mother.

"Yes, I've met Monty," Carole said fighting back the tears.

"Monty saved your life twice. When you came into the hospital you had lost so much blood that you had to have several pints of blood. Monty gave you one of them. You and Monty are both O-Negative. The rarest blood type there is. The doctors also cross matched Monty and I to you in case you needed an organ donor. You and Monty are a match. Finn, you have an uncle that we never knew existed," Carole told her son.

"Thanks Man," Finn said trying again to lift his other hand to shake Monty's. "I owe you my life, twice."

"Still unsure of what was going on Finn turned to Rachel and asked, "Please tell me that Beth's all right."

"Beth is fine, she's with Burt, my dads, Blaine, and Kurt at their hotel," Rachel said trying to reassure Finn. "Anya never got near her. Miss Sallie's granddaughter Hannah grabbed Beth and took her over to their place while Miss Sallie called the police."

"Why is everyone here?" Finn asked still confused.

"Finn, you have no idea how close you were to dying. Our families were on the first plane they could get, and they have been in New York every since. Your mom and I haven't left since you can in and neither has Monty."

"We didn't know if you might need your tank topped off again. Since we have the same blood type I stuck around," Monty laughed softly.

"So you really are my dad's older brother?" Finn asked Monty.

"It would appear so. With all of the damage that Anya did to your insides, they weren't sure if you would need any spare parts. So they cross matched me to you after Rachel told them that we might be related, and that we both have O- Negative blood," Monty smiled sheepishly at his new nephew.

"Mom, are you okay with this? I mean he's the spitting image of Dad," Finn asked his mother.

"Son, I'm more than okay with it. I'm so glad that you and I have a piece of your dad's family, and Monty saved yours and Rachel's lives. Without him neither of you wouldn't be here."

"I just remember a burning pain in my side, and then a hit on the back of my head." How did you stop her?" Finn asked Monty.

"Anya lunged at Rachel with the knife that she pulled from your side. I knocked her to the floor, and she hit her head on one those dumb bells. The rest is history," Monty said with a hint of sadness to his voice.

"Monty, has saving me and Rachel gotten you in trouble with the police?" Finn asked. "Do they know that you found dried blood before and cleaned it up?"

"They have questioned me and Rachel several times since Anya tried to kill you, but not about the old blood on the floor. Building Management call me and told me to clean apartment 333 before Rachel, Kurt, and Blaine moved in. When the hot mop water hit the floor, the water started turning bright red. I had been drinking that day and everything was a blur. I thought it was my blood so I cleaned it up and touched up the stains on the ceiling and walls. On the night that Anya tried to kill you, she confessed to killing the previous tenant there and Rachel heard every word of it."

"Do you mean that someone was actually killed in that apartment?" Finn asked still trying to make sense of everything.

"Zelda, I mean Anya said that she attacked two women there a long time ago, but they got away. She said that she killed the woman who lived there right before we moved in. She cut the third woman up into pieces so she could get her down the trash chute. She wrapped the woman in the woman's clothes and garbage bags. The smell was her hands that Anya hid under the floor boards in my old room," Rachel told Finn still unable to believe all of it.

"Rachel, please tell me that you, Kurt, and Blaine aren't going to live in that apartment?" Finn asked.

"Building Management has offered us a newer three bedroom apartment in one of their other apartment buildings for the same rent. The police have just about gutted our old place looking for evidence. Finn, you and Beth can come and live with the three of us when you're better," Rachel smiled at Finn.

"Hello, Mr. Hudson? I'm Doctor Mary Clair McDuffie of neurology. I'm the doctor who has been working on your head. Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald had been working on your other injuries, and he'll be in later. The ICU nurses told me that you were awake, and I am so glad that you have decided to rejoin us. You've had a rough 48 hours, but these three refused to go home," Dr. McDuffie said as she came in the door and stood at the foot of Finn's hospital bed.

"Am I going to be alright?" Finn asked the doctor.

"Eventually. You have a serious concussion, and we don't know what the long term effects of that will be. The knife wound did a lot of damage to your internal organs. Ten more minutes and you would have bled to death. It's going to take bed rest and physical therapy, but you should be okay. Your recovery will take some time. Now if I can ask your visitors to step out into the hall, I would like to give Mr. Hudson's head injury a through examination," the doctor asked.

Rachel, Carole, and Monty were waiting in the hall when they were approached by two New York City police officers.

"Mr. Ian Montgomery, would you please come with us down to precinct headquarters? The detectives have a few more questions for you."

"We have already told the detectives what happen two days ago over a half a dozen times, what more could they want?" Rachel protested.

"They want to talk to you about your wife and the older blood stains. They also want to speak to you about some missing persons reports that they have on file," one of the officers said speaking directly to Monty. "The coroner's office also wants to speak to you about your wife's body. They're ready to release it."

"Its okay Rachel, I'll call you when they're finished, I would like to see Anya one last time," Monty said as he left with the officers.

Soon Dr. McDuffie came out of Finn's room, and Carole asked how her son was doing.

"He's alert, his reflexes and vision are good, and his long term memory seems to be in tact. He's still fuzzy about the last several days. Dr. Fitzgerald can tell you more about the knife wound later. Your son should make a full recovery, but he's going to take some time to heal," Dr McDuffie told Carole and Rachel.

"Mrs. Hudson," The doctor said turning to Rachel, "I'm also concerned about you and Mr. Montgomery. Your husband didn't witness the attack, but the two of you did."

"You have been running on adrenaline for the last two days. I think that it's time that you left and tried to sleep. Your little girl could probably use some quality time with you as well," Dr. McDuffie advised Rachel.

"I came so close to losing him, I can't leave him," Rachel argued shaking her head.

"Yes you can, and from the family that has been here, I think you have enough reinforcements for someone to be here with him while you get some rest. Your husband is going to be sleeping a lot for the next few days anyway," the doctor advised Rachel.

Carole looked at the doctor and said, "I'll call the hotel and ask someone to come over, and then I'll take Rachel to the hotel for some sleep."

"If you have any trouble sleeping, please call my office and I'll prescribe something for you. The three of you have been through a very traumatic experience."

"What about Monty? The police took him for more questioning," Rachel asked.

"I'll tell the nurses to have him call you when he comes back. Now both of you get some rest or neither one of you will to be any good to him."

"Doctor, our daughter Beth is two years old. Can she come and see Finn. I think it would do him a world of good to see that she's okay," Rachel asked.

"Let's let some of the facial swelling and bruising fade a little first. I would also like to get him off of some of the machines before she sees him. Finn needs to see her, but all your daughter is going to see is the damage and the machines. Now that's he's awake, I think a phone call would suffice for now. I'll be back in a few hours to check on your husband, and the ICU is keeping a constant watch," Dr. McDuffie said as she excused herself to leave.

Rachel went back in to sit with Finn while Carole called Burt at the hotel.

"The doctor wants me to leave you for a couple of hours, but I can't do it," Rachel said with tears streaming down her face.

"You can, I'm going to be fine here, and Beth probably needs to see you. Give her a kiss for me and bring her the next time that you come," Finn asked squeezing Rachel's hand.

"Dr. McDuffie wants to wait until you have healed some, and you aren't hooked up to all of these machines. She seems to think that it might scare Beth to see you like this. I'm just glad that she didn't see you on the floor in that apartment," Rachel was now sobbing.

Finn reached for Rachel with his left arm and tried to pull her onto the bed with him. "It's okay; you kept Anya from hitting me again with that dumb bell. I'm going to be okay as long as I have you, and Beth, and the rest of our family. Our bigger family now that we have Monty. You go back to the hotel and get some rest. The doctor has ordered some pain medication so I'll probably be sleeping."

"Well I know that the others are anxiously waiting to see you especially Kurt. He'd be here now but the ICU would only let so many people in your room. Monty wouldn't go in case you needed more blood or an organ donor."

"Give me a kiss and you and Mom go and get some sleep. I'm right here by the ICU nurse's station, and they're not going to let anything happen to me," Finn said before Rachel smiled and really kissed him for the first time in days.

Carole came in and kissed her son good bye before she and Rachel reluctantly headed over to their hotel. Kurt and Blaine were on their way over to see Finn. Blaine had to drive because Kurt was giddy that his brother was going to make it.

At the hotel Hiram, Leroy, and Burt were playing with Beth who had just gotten up. Rachel sat down and held Beth in her arms for as long the toddler would sit still.

"Baby, Daddy's going to be okay. He's a little sick now, but you and I are going to go see him very soon," Rachel said softly to Beth as she kissed the top of her head and stroked her yellow curls.

"Daddy sick?" Beth asked with wide eyes. Rachel nodded yes trying not to cry.

"Daddy wuv me?" Beth asked again.

"Yes, Daddy loves you with all his heart," Rachel smiled as she hugged Beth tightly. "And I do too, Baby Girl, I do too."

Rachel gave Leroy her cell phone, and then she and Carole went over to Burt and Carole's room and were soon deeply asleep. Two days of sleeping in hospital chairs had caught up with them.

In the other hotel room, Burt, Hiram, and Leroy were trying to entertain Beth so Carole and Rachel could sleep. Rachel's cell phone rang and Leroy answered it.

"Rachel's not here, this is her father, may I take a message?" Leroy said to the caller.

Leroy listened intently scribbling down a few notes and numbers.

When the call ended, Leroy turned to Hiram and was definitely stunned.

"That was Monty. He has been arrested for obstruction of justice and as an accomplice to murder in the death of the woman that his wife killed."

-/-

Until chapter 12, THANK YOU for all of the reviews, suggestions, and feed back. I appreciate all of you, Whistler Nights


	12. Chapter 12 You've Got It All Wrong

**You've Got It All Wrong! – Chapter 12**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. Names are fictitious and appear only by coincidence.)

Finn was half-awake in his hospital room when Blaine and Kurt hurried in to see him.

"Finn, we thought you were a dead man!" Kurt effused as he hugged his step-brother. "Please don't ever do this to us again! We've all been nervous wrecks since Rachel call us!"

"Believe me, I didn't do this on purpose," Finn said weakly.

"I'm sorry that you were hit on the head with one of my dumb bells," Blaine apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Finn coughed. "How's Beth? I haven't seen her since we put her to bed Saturday night."

"Beth's fine. She asks about you a lot. Carole, Burt, Hiram, and Leroy caught the same plane to New York that Blaine and I did, and we've been taking turns keeping Beth busy," Kurt said trying to reassure Finn.

"Rachel says that the three of you aren't returning to your old apartment. I'm glad," Finn said wincing a little from the pain in his side.

"No Building Management has offered us a three bedroom apartment in another one of their apartment buildings. It's a little further from school, but it's newer. Hopefully it doesn't come with its own psycho-stalker-killer," Kurt tried to joke.

"I hope that we can move to the new place soon. The police still haven't released our old apartment since it's a crime scene. I really don't know if I want any of my old stuff from that place anyway," Blaine said. "I know that I don't want those dumb bells."

"I haven't been over there, but Monty says that the crime lab has ripped up the entire floor in Rachel's old room looking for evidence," Kurt told Finn.

"They're even checking the apartment below ours. The stains that the tenants thought were water and rust from the old pipes have turned out to be watered down blood stains on their ceiling as well," Blaine told Finn.

"Kurt, tell me the truth. How did Mom take it when she saw Monty for the first time?" Finn asked his step-brother.

"She was so worried about you; I don't think she noticed until Rachel asked her about a possible cross match between you and Monty. That's when Rachel introduced your mom to Monty and told her about the possible connection. Carole was stunned, but she was so afraid that you were going to die that nothing else mattered at the time. Rachel and Monty have told her the whole story while they were waiting for you to regain consciousness. The three of them never left this hospital until today when you woke up."

"That wasn't how I wanted Mom to meet Dad's brother, but I guess I didn't have much of a choice," Finn said almost to himself.

As the three were visiting a young nurse came in with a prepared syringe.

"I hope that's not for me," Finn cringed looking at the long needle. "I don't think I have the energy to roll over."

"You're in luck. Dr. McDuffie ordered some pain medication to take the edge off, and I can inject it directly into your IV line. No need for flashing your posterior today," the nurse laughed.

Finn soon felt the pain medication taking over and was getting fuzzy.

The nurse was checking Finn's vitals when Finn noticed that she was checking Blaine out as well.

"Blaine's awfully pretty but he's taken. My brother over there is going to ask him to marry him," Finn slurred as he felt the effects of the medication hit his blood stream.

"Blaine and I haven't discussed that!" Kurt admonished Finn as he felt his cheeks growing hot.

"Ah come on Kurt, you told me that you're going to ask him someday," Finn said before his eyelids closed, and his head settled back into his pillow.

"Blaine, I don't know what to say," Kurt blushed. "That must be some very good stuff that they're giving him to make him talk like that."

"Its okay," Blaine reassured Kurt. "It's not like I haven't thought about a future with you after we graduate from college."

Changing the subject Blaine said to Kurt, "It looks like your brother is asleep, so let's head over to the hotel. Maybe we can take Beth for a walk or something. Rachel said that her stroller was in the first floor storage closet at the old apartment building, and we can pick it up on our way."

"Are you sure that you want to go back over to that building?" Kurt asked warily. "The place is still probably crawling with police, and the sight of that building gives me the creeps. It could have been any one of us lying in a hospital bed or on a slab at the morgue."

"I do believe that Anya is dead, and I'll protect you," Blaine smiled as he led Kurt out of Finn's hospital room. Finn had already dozed off.

Finn slept for most of the morning, but sounds from the attack keep invading his dreams. He could hear Rachel begging Anya not to hit him again. He remembered the thud and the groan when Anya hit the floor beside him. The ambulance ride was mostly sirens and Rachel begging him to hang on.

At noon, a CNA woke him up to see if he would like to try eating some lunch. Finn hoped for a burger or a steak but was disappointed with pudding, and some other mashed up stuff that he didn't recognize.

"You need to eat if you're going to build up your strength. You lost a lot of blood," the CNA urged him.

"Where was Puck when you needed him? He knew that Puck could sneak a steak and fries in under any nurse's nose," Finn thought to himself.

"Does it have to be baby food?" Finn asked the CNA. "My daughter is two years old, and she eats better looking stuff than this."

"You have a daughter?" the CNA asked. "You don't look old enough to have a daughter."

"It's a long story, she's adopted," Finn said stirring his ground-up mystery meat and deciding that he wasn't hungry.

Finn pushed the tray back just as Dr. Fitzgerald walked into Finn's room examining his chart.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake, we've been quite concerned about you," the doctor said looking up from the chart. "I see that the soft diet isn't to your liking, but with the damage to your internal organs, you need to eat a soft, light diet for awhile."

"How bad was it?" Finn asked.

"Let's put it like this, if you weren't young and in such good physical shape, you probably wouldn't have made it."

"I did play football last fall in high school," Finn told the doctor.

"I hope that you aren't planning on making a career in the NFL because the damage to your kidneys won't let you," the doctor told Finn bluntly.

"No, I was hoping for a career as a songwriter or maybe a teacher," Finn said hopefully.

"Well you're going to have a lot of time to work on your songs as your recovery is going to take a couple of months."

"Tell me about my injuries," Finn asked.

"Dr. McDuffie can explain more about your head injury, but the woman who stabbed you must have been shorter. The entry track of the blade was upward, but when she pulled the knife out, she turned the blade downward. That's what caused all of your damage. If she hadn't turned the blade you injuries would've been half of what they are now. It also caused a lot of internal bleeding, but we have that stopped, the doctor said examining the incision in Finn's side.

"When can I go home?" Finn asked.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tomorrow we're going to start weaning you off of some of the pain medication and take as many of these machines out of here as possible. You're going to be in the ICU a day or two longer, and then I want to move you to a private room upstairs," the doctor said as he redressed Finn's incision.

"Can my two-year old daughter visit me then?" Finn asked.

"Yes, but don't pick her up. Hold her on your left side, but you're not going anywhere until you start eating Mr. Hudson," the doctor said as he was leaving.

Finn looked at his lunch tray again and thought he would give it a try for Rachel and Beth's sake.

When Blaine and Kurt arrived back at the hotel, Burt met them at the door.

"How's Finn? Did you get to talk to him?" Burt asked.

"For awhile and then they gave him something for the pain and he dozed off again. He was alert and talking, but he looks pretty beat up. His head is bandaged and so is his side," Kurt told his father.

"While we were out we went by the old building and picked up Beth's stroller. The first floor storage room was left unlocked so we didn't have to find someone with a key. If you want us to take her to the park we can," Blaine offered. "She's been cooped up in here for over two days so some fresh air would do her good."

"Are the crime lab people and the police still at the old apartment?" Burt asked.

"The crime scene van was parked in the alley by the dumpsters, but we didn't go past the first floor."

"Burt, have you told them the news?" Hiram asked as he entered the room.

"Guys, Monty called while you were gone, and he has been arrested for obstruction of justice and as an accessory to murder in the death of the previous tenant," Burt said solemnly.

"Have you told Rachel that Monty has been arrested? Monty lunged at Anya who had a knife in her hand! Monty knocked Anya down to keep her from killing Rachel! We were with Monty when he was hung over and was going on and on about what had happened earlier in that apartment!" Kurt was stunned.

"No we haven't told Rachel anything. She's dead tired so we are letting her sleep," Hiram told Kurt and Blaine.

"This is impossible! If Monty hadn't been there Finn, Rachel, and Beth could all be dead. He's really a hero, not an accomplice to murder. He risked his life when he stepped between Rachel and that knife, and the police have arrested him?" Blaine was astounded too.

"Leroy and I were on our way down to the police station to check on the situation. We were just waiting on you to get back to help Burt with Beth until Carole wakes up," Hiram said reaching for his jacket.

"Do you want us to say anything to Rachel if she wakes up?" Blaine asked.

"You can tell Carole, but let us find out what's going on down at the police station before you say anything to Rachel. She has been to hell and back the last couple of days. Maybe this is all a misunderstanding, and we can get some answers before we tell her anything," Leroy told Burt, Blaine, and Kurt before he and Hiram left.

Later in the afternoon, Rachel woke up to find everyone else including Carole waiting for her in the Berry's hotel room.

"Is Finn okay, why are all of you here? Is no one at the hospital with Finn? I've got to go, he can't be by himself," Rachel said frantically as she looked around the room for her purse.

"Rachel, Finn's fine. He has the entire ICU unit watching over him and Burt and Carole just came back from there. He's sedated and sleeping. We really have something that we need to tell you, and it doesn't involve Finn's well being at this time," Hiram tried to reassure his daughter.

"What could be more important that Finn? Is Beth okay?" Rachel was starting to panic.

"Beth is fine too. Kurt and Blaine took her to the park this afternoon, and she's sleeping now. Please sit down and take a deep breathe because we really need to talk to you," Leroy pleaded.

"Okay, but make it fast. I want to be there in case Finn wakes up," Rachel said trying to calm herself.

"It's Monty, he has been arrested for obstruction of justice and as an accomplice to murder," Hiram said as he watched the panic and confusion wash over Rachel's face.

"What? This can't be right. Monty saved all of our lives. Did they charge him with Anya's death?"

"No, they have charged him for obstruction of justice for cleaning up the blood from the murder of the girl who lived in the apartment before you. The have charged him as an accomplice for never reporting it to the police. Leroy and I have been down there this afternoon and Monty's okay. He's has his preliminary hearing tomorrow morning at nine."

"Monty said that there was never a body. How do they know that someone was even actually murdered? The three of us called the police, and the officer that came dismissed the blood stains. He reported it to the detectives and the crime lab, but no one ever came to investigate," Rachel raved.

"Rachel, they have identified the girl that was killed from the remains that were found under your floor boards. She was a call girl and hasn't been seen or heard from in two months. Her blood had seeped down into the wood, and the boards were saturated with her blood. The crime lab found trace blood stains in the trash chute that matched hers."

"That floor was soaked with Finn's blood too. Did they try matching her blood type to Finn's? Monty risked his life to save us and ended up causing his wife's death in the end! She wouldn't have fallen and hit her head if Monty hadn't shoved her away from me."

"Rachel I have read the charges and the crime lab's reports. The charges are plausible. If he had only reported the blood on the floor when he found it instead of cleaning it up none of this would be happening to him now," Hiram remarked.

"If he had reported it, Anya would still be out there! Can no one other than me see how circumstantial and ludicrous these trumped up charges are?" Rachel argued.

"We all do," Leroy interrupted.

"Are you and Dad going to represent him? You are both licensed in this state to practice law."

"Rachel, we're licensed, but neither one of us is a criminal defense lawyer. Our expertise is civil liberties. We couldn't give him the best defense possible."

"So you're going to leave his fate in the hands of the public defender's office?"

"Monty has already asked for a lawyer, and he has been assigned an attorney named Charles Brown. He's young, but we feel that he's competent. Hiram and I talked with him and Monty for a long time this afternoon." Hiram tried to reason with his daughter.

"Will you at least back this Charles Brown up?" Rachel demanded. "There's strength in numbers you know."

"If Mr. Brown seeks our council, then we'll be happy to assist him. We told him that we were both civil liberties lawyers, but Rachel there's a matter of protocol here. And just how well do any of us know Ian 'Monty' Montgomery?" Hiram asked point blank.

"I can't believe that you just asked that! I wouldn't be standing here if Monty hadn't risked his life, and Finn would have bled to death in another ten minutes! Monty has been standing by at the hospital since all of this happened in case Finn needed a kidney or more blood!" Rachel stormed.

The others stood there dumbfounded as Rachel argued back and forth with Hiram. All of the commotion soon woke Beth up and Carole went to get the toddler.

Beth was rubbing her eyes as Carole carried her back into the room with all of the grown ups.

Rachel and Hiram immediately changed their tones when Beth entered the room.

"Hi Sweetheart, did you have a good nap?" Rachel asked her sweetly.

"Mommy mad?" Beth asked.

"No, Mommy isn't mad, especially not at you," Rachel said as she reached for Beth to give her a hug.

"I'm just so glad to see you, and Daddy's getting better. He says to give you a kiss from him. He misses you and he can't wait to see you," Rachel smiled at Beth as she kissed her little cheek twice.

"Me miss Daddy too," Beth said as she snuggled into Rachel's arms.

"I need to go and see your daddy. Will you stay here with everyone while I go and check on him?" Rachel asked.

Beth nodded and leaned for Burt to take her. Rachel gathered her things and was heading out the door when Leroy followed her into the hall.

"Rachel, we may be able to solve all of this at the preliminary hearing. I wouldn't say anything to Finn just yet. He needs to concentrate on recovering," Leroy cautioned her.

"Daddy, what if Finn asks about Monty? What am I supposed to tell Finn then?"

"Tell him that Monty can't come right now. Finn is so groggy and weak; he probably won't know the difference," Leroy advised. "I'll reason with Hiram while you're gone."

At the hospital, Rachel found Finn awake and stirring his dinner with a disgusted look on his face.

"Hey Babe, how are you feeling?" Finn asked.

"Much better now that I've had some sleep in a bed. The better question is how are you feeling?" Rachel asked followed by a quick peck on Finn's lips.

"Like I have a very bad hang over, or I've been ran over by a bus. I don't know how they expect me to get better eating this stuff," Finn whined.

"Would it taste better if I fed you?" Rachel offered tucking Finn's napkin into the neck of his hospital gown.

Finn just smiled as Rachel picked up the spoon and started feeding him like a baby bird.

After a few bites, Rachel smiled and whispered to Finn, 'You know, I don't know which is sexier, your scruff or feeding you."

Finn reached up and rubbed his three day old beard. "You like me with a little scruff? Let's see how it feels when I kiss you senseless," Finn smiled as he raised one eyebrow at Rachel.

"I'm so happy to see that you still have your wicked sense of humor. I'm going to hold you to that, kissing me senseless while I feed you strawberries dipped in chocolate," Rachel laughed.

"Woman, keep talking like that and I'm going to get better a lot faster," Finn warned.

"I hope so, I really hope so. Beth and I miss you so much. I'm going to bring her over as soon as the doctors say that it's okay," Rachel said wiping the apple sauce from Finn's chin with his napkin before she leaned in and kissed him.

"How was the apple sauce?" Finn asked when Rachel pulled back.

"It was delicious," Rachel whispered as she locked eyes with Finn.

Rachel was going for a second kiss when a CNA came in to check on Finn's progress with his dinner.

"Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt a private moment," the CNA said turning to leave.

"No, you don't have to go," Rachel laughed. "I was just getting reacquainted with my husband."

"Actually you're probably better for him than any of the medicine that we have here. If Mr. Hudson is finished, I'll take his tray and give you two some time together before the nurse comes in with his pain meds for the night."

"I don't know what they've been giving me, but I go right to sleep. I just wish I didn't have such awful dreams about what happened," Finn said loud enough to be over heard by the CNA.

"If you like I can tell your nurse that the pain meds are causing bad dreams about your attack. She can call Dr. McDuffie and ask her if she can give you something else," the CNA offered.

"I would like that," Finn agreed.

After the CNA left, Finn motioned for Rachel to crawl up on the bed with him. He lifted his left arm for her to snuggle up next to him.

"Finn, you didn't tell me that you were having bad dreams about the attack. I thought you were unconscious after Anya hit you. What do you remember?" Rachel asked.

"I don't really remember seeing anything, I just remember hearing things. I remember you begging that woman not to hit me again. I remember the ride in the ambulance. You were squeezing my hand and pleading with me to hang on. I remember your warm tears falling on my face. But your dreams must be nightmare compared to mine," Finn said as he kissed the top of Rachel's head.

"My only dreams have been about a life without you in it," Rachel said kissing the back of Finn's hand. "That is something that I don't ever want to do. You held on and we're all so grateful."

"Me too," Finn whispered as he kissed Rachel's head. "Me too."

They spent the next hour just cuddled together. Rachel was intently listening to the rhythmic beat of Finn' heart as she lay beside him with her head on his chest.

"Are you coming back first thing tomorrow morning?" Finn asked.

Rachel didn't want to lie to Finn, but she knew she had to be in the courtroom for Monty's preliminary hearing at nine the next morning.

"I'll be here as quick as I can, but your mom and Burt want to come and see you while you're awake. I think you slept through their visit this afternoon," Rachel told Finn trying not to lie to him.

Soon a nurse interrupted their blissful moment when she came in with another long hypodermic needle and a syringe. The nurse inserted the needle into Finn's IV line, and soon Rachel felt him relax and drift off to sleep. She slipped off the bed and tucked him in. Rachel didn't want to leave Finn, but she had to get back to the hotel. She wanted to talk with her dads about Monty and his pre-trial hearing for murder the following morning.

-/-

Until the chapter 13, thank you for all of your reviews. I appreciate all of your feed back so much. Sincerely, Whistler Nights

CNA = Certified Nursing Assistant. Thank Heaven for every one of them!


	13. Chapter 13 The Preliminary Hearing

**The Preliminary Hearing – Chapter 13**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. All names are fictitious and appear only by coincidence.)

On Wednesday morning Rachel was up early. It had been agreed the night before that Rachel, Kurt, Hiram, and Leroy would attend Monty's preliminary hearing. Carole would visit Finn in the hospital that morning, and Burt and Blaine would stay in the hotel with Beth.

Monty's preliminary hearing was at nine, but Rachel hurried so she could drop in and see Finn before she had to be at court. She walked into Finn's room in the ICU just as his breakfast was brought in.

"Oh are you here to spoon feed me again?" Finn asked when he saw his wife come through the door.

"No, I'm here for my good morning kiss," Rachel giggled as she gave Finn a quick peck on the lips.

"I've got a lot to do today so I thought that I would come early. I've missed two days of classes, and I'm also curious to see what's happening in my Introduction to Musical Theater class now that our instructor is dead," Rachel said with a hint of dread to her voice.

"Rachel, don't worry about it. I'm sure that Juilliard has replaced her with someone capable of teaching the class and won't judge you for what happened to Zelda this weekend. Zelda, I mean Anya tried to kill both of us. She was a deranged psychopath who had slipped through the cracks for years. She can't hurt anyone now," Finn said rubbing the back of Rachel's hand.

"I know, it just that I know people will be pointing at me and whispering behind my back," Rachel sighed sadly.

"You should be immune to those kinds of people by now. You and I attended McKinley High School remember?" Finn said trying to console Rachel.

"Well no one every tried to kill me at McKinley, and no one ever died there. Finn, I have thought about dropping that class and retaking it again this fall," Rachel suggested.

"Baby if that's what you want to do, then do it. Drop all of your summer session courses and start over again this fall if that's what you need to do. No one would blame you. Beth and I wouldn't mind having you around while I get better anyway."

"I can't do that. If I drop all three of my classes, I won't have a chance of graduating in three years. I want our family back together again as soon as possible," Rachel said shaking her head.

"No one wants that more than I do," Finn said as he pulled Rachel into a hug.

Rachel had just finished feeding Finn his breakfast when another CNA entered the room carrying a pink plastic tub, a wash cloth, soap, a disposable razor, toothbrush and toothpaste, a clean hospital gown, and clean sheets.

"Good Morning Mr. Hudson," the CNA said cheerfully. "We're going to have a bath this morning."

"We?" Finn said very sheepishly.

"Yes, I'm going to help you with a sponge bath and a shave. Then Dr. McDuffie has ordered another MRI of your concussion. If she's satisfied with the results, you may get to leave ICU for a private room on the third floor today. Up there you won't feel like you're under a microscope all of the time."

"Can my wife help me with my bath? No offense to you, but she already knows what I look like, and I'm a little self conscious," Finn admitted as he blushed deeply and Rachel stifled a giggle.

"Of course she can help, just be careful around his incisions and his IV line. Press the button if you need any help," the CNA said as she pulled the curtain and left Rachel to give Finn a bath.

"Finn, she works in a hospital. Don't you think she's seen hundreds of naked men before?"

"Well she hasn't seen me," Finn said defending himself.

Rachel just grinned, "You have no idea how many people saw you naked when you were out cold for two days. They cut your clothes off of you in the ER. I don't know why you are so self-conscious; I think you're absolutely perfect. Don't you think I haven't noticed the female staff around here checking you out?"

"You're imagining things, and you're the only one who's allowed to check me out," Finn smiled as he pulled Rachel into their second kiss of the day.

"Where do you want to begin?" Rachel asked. "I've never shaved anyone before."

"I thought that you liked my scruff?" Finn teased.

"I do, but we want Beth to recognize you when I bring her in to see you. I don't know if she would like scruffy kisses on her delicate cheeks anyway," Rachel said as she open a small pack of shaving cream and poured it into her hand.

Rachel lathered up Finn's face and neck and opened the disposable razor. She pushed Finn's nose up with her thumb and started to work on his upper lip.

"Don't laugh or I'll end up cutting your lips off," Rachel scolded Finn.

"It's just that it tickles, and you should see the look on your face," Finn laughed when Rachel turned to rinse the razor. "You're concentrating so hard, and you have your tongue sticking out the side of your month."

"Here I am trying not to nick you, and all you can do is laugh at me. I should let the CNA shave and bathe you. Then you might appreciate me."

"I do appreciate you, and here's a kiss to prove it."

Finn kissed Rachel on the lips and left shaving cream all over her face too.

They were both laughing at each other when the CNA came in to check their progress.

"We're just fine," Rachel assured the CNA. "My husband just got a little carried away with the shaving cream."

"It's good to see Mr. Hudson laugh after what he's been through," the CNA laughed with them before she turned and left.

Rachel finished shaving Finn and then washed his face with the wash cloth. "Do you have any idea how much I love you Finn Hudson?" Rachel asked as she dried his face.

"I already know. I heard you beg that woman to kill you instead of hitting me with that dumb bell again. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save me. I hope that one day I can live up to what you did for me," Finn said locking eyes with Rachel.

"You already have. You put your life on hold to married me and adopted Beth. You stayed behind in Lima to care for Beth so I could chase my dreams. It's me that's grateful to you. Now, if we don't get on with this bath, I'm going to be late for class," Rachel lied knowing that she was heading to court instead.

Rachel untied and unsnapped Finn's hospital gown and help him out of it. It was the first time that she had seen his bandaged side and she was stunned.

"Finn you're bandaged all the way past to your spine," Rachel said in surprise.

"I know," Finn said sadly. "Dr. Fitzgerald had to open me up to repair all the damage, especially to my right kidney. I'm sorry that I'm going to be all scared up."

"Finn Hudson, I don't care if you look like a road map just as long as you're here with me and Beth. I can see why Dr. Fitzgerald wanted you to be careful with your right side. It would be easy to pull something lose," Rachel said as she carefully washed his back.

When she was done bathing him, she helped him into the clean hospital gown. The old one still had blood stains on it. Grim reminders of what Finn had been through. Lastly she found the hospital toothbrush and tooth paste in the things that the CNA had brought in. Finn was right handed and it was difficult to lift his right arm, so he struggled through brushing his teeth with his left hand and Rachel's help.

"I don't know how to change the sheets with you in the bed, so I'm going to leave that to the staff," Rachel said as she tucked Finn back in. "I'm going to press the buzzer now and get someone that knows what they're doing in here."

The CNA returned with an orderly. "Mr. Hudson, we're going to take you over to the Imaging Department for your MRI. We're going to take you in your bed and transfer you to the machine there. We'll change your sheets while you're having your MRI done. Your wife is welcome to wait for you here."

"Oh no, I've got somewhere that I have to be, but Finn's mother should be here by the time he gets back to his room. She's a nurse so she should be more help to him then I am," Rachel said as she went to give Finn a goodbye kiss.

"Don't underestimate yourself," Finn smiled at Rachel. "That was the best bath that I've had in a long time."

Out in the hall, Rachel said a small prayer asking God to forgive her for telling Finn a lie, and then she pulled out the directions to the building where Monty's preliminary hearing was being held.

Arriving in the court room, Hiram, Leroy, and Kurt were already there.

"How's Finn?" Kurt whispered to Rachel.

"He's better. I shaved him and helped him with his bath. They were taking him for another MRI of his concussion when I left," Rachel whispered back.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Andrew Martin," the bailiff announced as a middle aged man entered the court room wearing a black robe.

"Everyone please be seated," the judge instructed as he adjusted his glasses and announced the first case.

"This is a preliminary hearing in the case of Ian Montgomery verses the State of New York. Is the accused present?" the judge asked.

"Yes your honor," Charles Brown answered the judge as Monty was brought into the court room.

Rachel was shocked when she saw Monty in an orange jump suit being led in. Monty took a seat beside Mr. Brown at the defense table.

"Mr. Montgomery, this is a probable cause hearing where it will be determined if there is enough evidence to formally charge you with a crime. I have read the reports and charges that the DA's office has brought against you, and I am ready to hear from their Assistant District Attorneys first. After they have finished I will hear from you. Unlike an arraignment, you will be allowed to speak for yourself and to have others speak on your behalf. After the proceedings I will decide if you should be formally charged, held over, set free on bail, or have the charges dismissed. I see that you already have an attorney. Do you understand the charges against you?" the judge asked.

Monty rose and answered, "Yes your honor I do," before he sat back down.

The judge adjusted his papers and then looked directly at the prosecution's table.

"Before the prosecution present their charges, I would like to warn the DA's office that I have read your brief, the detective's report, and the crime lab's findings, and unless you have more evidence to present to me at this time, I find that most of charges in the death of one Miss Misty Dawn to be circumstantial at best."

"I would also like to warn you that the defendant isn't being charged in the death of Anya Montgomery also known as Zelda Zhivanevskaya. That death has already been ruled self-defense. For the purposes of this hearing, the deceased Professor Zelda Zhivanevskaya will be referred to as Anya Montgomery."

Rachel smiled and squeezed Kurt's hand. He wrote back to her on his note pad, "Misty Dawn, that can't be her given name."

"Misty Dawn was a call girl. I would've changed my name too," Rachel wrote back on Kurt's note pad.

The ADA presented the charges and told the court that Monty had obstructed justice when he cleaned up what he should have known was a crime scene. He also was an accomplice to murder when he failed to report the crime scene to the police. That much blood in one location should have prompted anyone to call the police.

The ADA also went into great length to make sure that the judge understood that Monty and Anya never divorced, and she probably needed help disposing of the body.

The judge cleared his throat before he spoke directly to Monty instead of his attorney, Charles Brown. "Mr. Montgomery what is your occupation, and what duties do you perform that would explain why you didn't report what you found in apartment 333 to the police?"

"Your honor I'm an apartment building supervisor. I received a call from my supervisor at Building Maintenance to get apartment 333 cleaned and ready for new tenants. My supervisor was angry because he assumed that the tenant Misty Dawn had skipped out without paying her last month's rent, and I had let it happen. Management was going to dock my pay.

"It was a Saturday and I was off the clock, but on call. I will probably lose my job for saying this, but I had already had one beer that morning and after the chewing out that I had taken over the phone, I reached for the hard stuff.

I've always hated having anything to do with apartment 333. That's where Anya and I lived when we were first married. It's also the place where I saw her for the last time after she threw a knife at me and left me to die. If our neighbor, Marcus Lafayette hadn't found me, I would've bled to death."

Monty pulled back his collar for the judge to see the scar. The judge motioned for Monty to approach the bench then he motioned for Monty to the return to the defense table.

"Mr. Montgomery, do you have a drinking problem?" Judge Martin asked Monty point blank.

"I don't consider myself to be a day to day alcoholic, but on occasions I have drank to the point of passing out. It usually happens when something reminds me of my own wasted life, or my wife who never came back, or that apartment. I become lonely and depressed. I'm not proud of it, but I find my comfort in a bottle, your honor."

"How long ago did your wife leave you, and why did you stay in the same apartment building if it causes you to drink?" The judge asked.

"Anya left me twenty years ago, and I never left the same apartment building in the hope that one day she might come back looking for me. I wanted to be there if she did. After she left me I couldn't afford the rent on my own, and the building needed a new superintendent. I took over the job and the superintendent's apartment on the first floor, and I have been there ever since. I have several long term tenants, and they treat me like the family that I didn't have for so many years."

"Tell me exactly what happened when you found the room with the presumed blood on the floor," the judge continued to question Monty.

"I had been mopping the living room, kitchen, and the other bedroom. By the time I reached that bedroom I was well on my way to being all out drunk. When the hot water hit the stains on the floor, the soap suds turned dark red. I honestly thought that it was my blood from so many years ago. It was the same room, and I was more than a little drunk."

"The more I scrubbed, the redder the mop water and soap suds became. I remember changing the mop water several times in the bath tub. Eventually I passed out in that apartment and came to the next morning."

"I had all the blood that would come up mopped up, but the wood was still stained. Still unsure of what had happened I went downstairs and found a big enough piece of carpet to cover the floor. I repainted the stains on the ceiling and walls."

"Where you trying to cover up a possible murder?" the judge asked.

"Honestly your honor, no. I thought that it was my blood and the hot soapy water had brought it to the surface. There wasn't a body."

"I see here that the current tenants found the blood stains while they were searching for an odor in that apartment and notified the police. Officer T.M. Carlyle was the responding officer, and he reported his findings to the detectives and the crime lab. How did you explain the odor Mr. Montgomery?" the judge asked.

"Our building is over one hundred years old, and it has direct access to the city's sewer system. The rats that come in are so large that I have to use a lot of rat poison in the basement. Sometimes they die in the floors or walls."

"Mr. Montgomery, did you know that your wife was alive and living near you?" Judge Martin asked.

"Your honor, if I had known, I would have gone looking for her instead of waiting twenty years."

"Do you have anyone to speak on your behalf?" The judge asked Monty.

"Yes sir I do. I have Mrs. Rachel Hudson, and Mr. Kurt Hummel who are both the current residents of apartment 333. I have Sallie and Hannah Lafayette, and Mr. and Mrs. Yamato who are long term tenants. I also have Mr. Marcus Lafayette and my supervisor, Mr. Carl Jordan," Monty answered the judge.

"I'll hear from Mrs. Rachel Hudson first," the judge said jotting down a few notes, "Mrs. Hudson please approach the witness stand and be seated. This is an informal preliminary hearing so I'll be directing most of the questions. Mrs. Hudson, how are you involved in this case?"

"I am one of the current tenants of apartment 333. Anya Montgomery tried to kill both myself and my husband there. My husband is in the hospital ICU suffering from a concussion and major internal injuries. If Mr. Ian Montgomery hadn't stopped his wife Anya, she would've probably killed not only myself and my husband, but our two year old daughter Beth who was in the next room."

"It was when our daughter Beth started crying that Anya went berserk and lunged at me with the knife that she had pulled from my husband's side. If Mr. Montgomery hadn't stepped between us and shoved his wife backwards, I probably wouldn't be here today. He risked his life to save not only myself, but my husband and my child. All of us consider him to be a hero."

"Mrs. Hudson, are you related to Mr. Montgomery in any way?"

"Yes, through marriage I'm his niece. He's my husband's uncle. In fact he gave my husband a pint of blood when he was rushed to the hospital, and he stood by in case my husband needed an organ donor. The two of them are a match," Rachel said smiling at Monty.

"Mr. Montgomery waited with me at the hospital for two solid days for my husband to regain consciousness after Anya hit him over the head with a dumb bell and then stabbed him," Rachel concluded.

"Is you husband going to be alright?" Judge Martin asked.

"He's still in the ICU, but he was within ten minutes of bleeding to death. He has a concussion, a damaged kidney, and other internal injuries," Rachel said trying not to get over emotional.

"Is you daughter okay?" Judge Martin asked.

"Thanks to Ian Montgomery and Hannah Lafayette she is. Mr. Montgomery kept Anya from getting to her before Hannah Lafayette grabbed her and took her to the apartment that she shares with her grandmother, Sallie Lafayette."

Rachel was excused to sit down as the judge talked to Kurt, all three Lafayette's, Mr. and , and finally Monty's supervisor, Carl Jordan.

When everyone had finished speaking in Monty's defense, Judge Martin turned to the prosecution's table.

"Gentlemen before this process began I warned you that your evidence was weak and circumstantial at best. I do believe that this has been a rush to judgement on your part as you have failed to show deliberate criminal intent on any level. Regardless of what had been on the floor of that apartment it was Mr. Montgomery's job as superintendent to clean it up. He had been instructed by his supervisor to do so."

"Since the defendant isn't a forensic scientist, he would have had no way of knowing for certain what the substance on the floor was. Granted Mr. Montgomery had been drinking and that is never an excuse, but you haven't shown that he knowingly participated in the death of Miss Misty Dawn."

Then the judge turned to Monty and spoke directly to him,

"Mr. Montgomery, as you may well know a full jury trial involves a great amount of taxpayer money and the court's time. I had my doubts about this case before we started, but the words of Mrs. Hudson and Mr. Hummel have convinced me that no crime on your part was knowingly committed. You risked your life at the expense of your wife's."

"However, I am concerned about your drinking, and how it led to you being involved in this case in the first place."

"I'm willing release you on your own recognizance and hold this case over for six months with three provisions. One, you are to check yourself into a rehabilitation clinic for alcoholism. Two, complete a twelve step program. And three, report back to this court in six months with proof of six months sobriety. Failure to do so will result in this case being reopened. Since you haven't been formally charged at this time, the double jeopardy law does not apply in this case. This rehabilitation is court ordered. Mr. Montgomery, do you have the resources to pay for this treatment?"

"You honor, all I have is a few thousand dollars and a paid-up burial insurance policy. I was going to use the burial insurance for my own burial one day, but now I'm using it for Anya. I'm going to have her ashes returned to Russia. I think that's what she would've wanted."

The judge was rethinking his decision when Monty's supervisor asked to speak. "Your honor, Mr. Montgomery is a twenty year employee with Building Maintenance. His health insurance will cover almost all of his rehab. I think we can arrange a leave of absence so he can get his life back on track."

"Thank you Mr. Jordan," the judge said before he turned his attention back to Monty.

"Mr. Montgomery. I'm willing to hold over this case for six months with the provisions that I have stated. You will return to my court in six months and I will dismiss charges against you at that time. I expect to see proof of your admission into a rehab facility on my desk within thirty days. I'm releasing you on your own recognizance, but failure to comply with my orders will result in an immediate warrant for your arrest. Have I made myself clear, Mr. Montgomery?"

"Yes, your honor, you have made yourself very clear," Monty smiled.

"Then you are to be processed back through the jail and released no later than six o'clock this evening. If that is all, this hearing is adjourned." Judge Martin smacked his gavel and left the court room through the same door that he had entered.

Rachel and the others gathered around Monty to congratulate him before the deputies ushered him away.

"We'll be by to see you later tonight," Rachel called to him as he disappeared through the side door.

Rachel, Kurt, Hiram, and Leroy left the court, hailed a cab, and made their way over to the hospital where Finn was a patient. Entering the ICU Finn's bed was empty. If fact it was neatly made up for the next patient.

"Where's my husband, where's Finn Hudson?" Rachel asked the nurse at the desk ready to panic.

"Dr. McDuffie and Dr. Fitzgerald had him moved to a private room on the third floor. His MRI showed enough improvement that they thought he could leave the ICU."

"Thank you," Rachel called back to the nurse as she hurried toward the elevators with Kurt and her dads in tow.

Upstairs they found Finn in a private room with not only Carole, but Beth, Burt and Blaine were with him. The large bandage around his head was gone and it was replaced with a small one in the back. All of the machines and IVs were gone as well. Finn was sitting up in bed with Beth nestled in beside him on his left side sound asleep.

"How did it go?" Blaine asked before he realized that he may have let the cat out of the bag. Kurt gave him a thumbs-up and a big smile.

"How did what go?" Finn asked. "I've never known anyone to be this happy about just going to class."

Rachel swallowed hard and drew in a deep breath before she spoke, "Finn, I'm sorry, but I lied to you. We haven't been at class. Monty was arrested for obstruction of justice and accessory to murder in the death of the call girl."

"We have been at his preliminary hearing this morning, but the judge has offered to dismiss the charges if Monty completes an alcohol rehabilitation program and reports back to the court in six months."

"It's my fault that Rachel misled you," Leroy interrupted. "You had just regained consciousness, and you needed to concentrate on getting better. The charges were so weak; I hoped that they might be dismissed at the preliminary hearing. I asked Rachel to wait to tell you about Monty until after this morning's hearing and you were stronger."

"It's okay Rach, I understand. This week hasn't been anything like what we expected. Now tell me about these charges and where is Monty now?" Finn asked.

Rachel, Kurt, Leroy, and Hiram spent the next hour retelling the events of the morning and of Monty's arrest. All of the excited chatter soon had Beth awake. She blinked her long lashes at the grown ups a few times, rubbed her eyes, put her finger to her lips and said, "Shhh- Daddy sick."

The whole room erupted into soft laughter as Beth just snuggled closer to Finn.

Carole suggested that she take Beth back to the hotel. Blaine told Kurt that their new three bedroom apartment was ready, and that they needed to go and check it out before they went shopping for sheets and things.

Hiram, Leroy, and Burt made their excuses to leave too. The three men had a law practice and a tire store to run back in Lima, but they would be by to see Finn before they left town. Carole and Beth were going to stay in New York until Finn was able to fly back to Lima.

After everyone left it was just Finn and Rachel.

"Finn, I'm so sorry that I lied to you. I know that we made a promise to never lie to one another."

"Rach, it's okay. I understand." He said as he motioned for Rachel to sit beside him on the bed.

"When do the doctors think you'll be ready to leave the hospital?" Rachel asked as Finn played with a strand of her hair.

"They said I would probably be here another week or so. Then they're going to transfer my case to specialists in Columbus, Ohio for my check ups. They think I can do my physical therapy in Lima."

"Finn, I've been thinking some more about it, and I'm going to drop out of Juilliard and go home to take care of you," Rachel announced out of the blue.

"No you're not! You have come too far to do that. Mom and I talked, and she's going to take a leave of absence. I'll have Sharon to help me during the day when she's there for Beth. I'm going to drop two of my summer classes because I've missed so much already, but I'm going to see if I can still take the Music Theory class on-line. With Sam's help I should be able to do at home. You're not giving up on your dreams because I've had a little set back," Finn said nodding his head.

"A little set back? You almost died! I need to be with you," Rachel said astounded.

"And you and I will be together, but right now you need to concentrate on Juilliard. I'll have plenty of help in Lima, and you can still come home on the weekend like we planned."

"Rachel, please don't let this Anya/Zelda woman take your dreams away from you. If you do then she has won. Remember when she told you that maybe you didn't belong at Juilliard? Prove her wrong. Prove her wrong for me and Beth," Finn asked Rachel.

"And think about Monty?" Finn continued. "He said that he drank because of the past, and because he was all alone in the world. He now has you and Kurt to be here in New York for him as he pieces his life back together. We owe him our lives."

"We're going to have that three bedroom apartment. You and Beth can live with us here in New York, and I can take care of both of you," Rachel argued.

"Rachel, when we started this journey together, we agreed that we would do what was best for Beth. Our marriage comes first, but I can't see you taking care of me and Beth and trying to go to school when we have all of that help in Lima. I'm going to have countless trips to the doctors and physical therapists and you can't take me every single time."

"Please concentrate on graduating as soon as you can, and I'm concentrate on getting better. Beth and I will join you in New York, just not right now," Finn said as he kissed the top of Rachel's head.

"I'm holding you to that Finn Hudson. I want the three of us together as a family as soon as possible. Our marriage does come first, but I want you to get well before anything else. That will probably happen faster in Lima instead of here. You don't need to be chasing a two year old while you're trying to get better yourself. I was just being selfish," Rachel gave in.

"No you weren't being selfish. I want that more than anything too, but I want you to have your dreams too. I want you to go to class tomorrow and get caught up. You've already lost too much time as it is," Finn insisted as he pulled Rachel closer to his side.

"Okay if you insist, but I'm going to be in Lima every weekend, until you get better," Rachel smiled at Finn.

"I know that Beth and I will both love that," Finn smiled back at Rachel before he kissed her.

Fourteen days after Finn and Beth had landed in New York; they were leaving and flying home. On this return trip Carole and Rachel were going with them. Finn was loaded in an ambulance at the hospital and taken directly to the airport along with his three best girls. Rachel, Carole, and Beth. The ambulance driver even blew the sirens for Beth as they entered the airport terminal.

On the airplane, Finn, Rachel, Beth, and Carole were seated in first class so Finn could have the extra room. Carole had switched from Mom Mode into Nurse Mode and had a bag full of everything that the doctors had given Finn for his first few days at home.

Hiram and Leroy had rented a hospital bed and had set a bedroom up for Finn in the den downstairs. The stairs would be impossible for him for awhile. Carole was going to stay with them at night for the first week or so, and Sharon Evans was happy to help during the day. Either Hiram, Leroy, or Burt would be available to take Finn to his many appointments.

As the airplane taxied westward down the runway, Rachel looked out the window at the New York skyline as it passed quickly by.

Finn squeezed Rachel's hand and said softly to her, "Don't worry Baby, you'll be back. All three of us will be back."

-/-

Until the next chapter which will be the epilogue, thank you so much for all of your reviews, and feedback. Hearing from you is what keeps me inspired to keep this story going. With appreciation, Whistler Nights

ICU = Intensive Care Unit

CNA = Certified Nursing Assistant

DA= District Attorney

ADA= Assistant District Attorney


	14. Chapter 14 Endings and Beginnings

**Epilogue - Endings and Beginnings – Chapter 14**

(I do not own Glee or any of the characters. All names are fictitious and appear only by coincidence.)

Their flight from New York had been a non-eventfully one. Rachel helped Finn off the plane in Lima with the help of the flight attendants. An airport staffer was waiting with a wheel chair for Finn. Carole followed with Beth and her car seat. Hiram, Leroy, and Burt were waiting to collect their families and the luggage.

Finn arrived at the Berry home to find that Hiram and Leroy had turned the den downstairs into a room for him complete with a hospital bed, flowers, and get-well balloons.

Everyone was fussing over him like a flock of mother hens. Even Beth ran up stairs and brought him one of her favorite teddy bears.

"Dis ill make you feel better," Beth said handing Finn a pink bear with the purple ribbon around its neck.

"I know this bear is just the right medicine. Thank you for sharing your bear with me," Finn said to Beth as she smiled back at her daddy.

After lunch, Rachel tucked Beth in for her nap, and then went downstairs to tuck Finn in for his.

"I wish it was just me and you upstairs in our big king size bed. I would love to just wrap my arms around you and smell your hair while I sleep," Finn said as Rachel tucked the cover in around him.

"Who says that we can't cuddle? Move over and I'll scoot in beside you. This hospital bed is big enough for the both of us. When we do get back into our bed, we'll have to switch sides. I need to be on your left side so I don't bump into your incisions in the middle of the night," Rachel said as she cuddled up under Finn's left arm. "I like your left side better anyway. I can put my head on your chest and listen to your heart beat. That's a sound that I don't ever want to get tired of hearing."

Rachel scooted in beside him and soon Finn was fast asleep. His pain meds were half of what they had been, but they still put him to sleep almost immediately. Rachel just lay there listening to his heart beat and feeling the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. "What a difference two weeks makes," she thought to herself. Two weeks ago Finn was whole. Two weeks ago she hadn't stared down a knife waiting to die. She shivered at the thought and then wrapped her arm protectively around Finn and was soon dozing herself.

That night Rachel slept snuggled up next to Finn until he went to sleep. Carole came over and slept on the couch in case Finn needed a nurse during the night. It was his first night out of the hospital.

The next day was Sunday and Rachel was booked on the last flight back to New York. She had dropped her Introduction to Musical Theater class but needed to finish her other two classes in the summer session. In another week, summer session would be over, and she could be home with her family until the fall semester began.

When Rachel landed in New York, Blaine and Kurt picked her up and had the taxi driver take them to the new apartment. The boys had worked hard while Rachel was away to scavenge what they could from their old apartment and fix up the new one. They didn't want Rachel to have to return to apartment 333 ever again.

She promised Kurt and Blaine that she wouldn't go past the first floor, but she had to go over and visit Monty before he checked himself into the rehab facility. Rachel was relieved when Monty told her that Building Management has decided to turn apartment 333 into a storage room for the third floor residents after the police gutted it looking for evidence.

"I'm glad," Rachel told Monty. "Enough bad stuff has happened in that apartment. It's time that the space to be used for something else."

Monty wanted to know all about how Finn was doing. He asked Rachel if she though it would be okay if he visited Lima someday. He wanted to visit all of his new family and friends, but most of all he wanted to visit the cemetery. He had never known Joe Hudson, but he still felt the need to go and pay his respects to his father.

When the summer session at Juilliard was over, Rachel had two solid A's. She had taken a W/P or withdrawn/passing grade in the Introduction to Musical Theater class. Before she left for Lima, she registered for her fall classes and made sure that she had a male professor for that class.

Finn dropped his writing and math classes since he had missed two solid weeks. He continued to work on his Music Theory class on-line with his professor's permission. He had a lot of catching up do, but he had nothing else to do. With Sam's help he caught up and made a B in the class. His first college level course grade and he was proud of that B.

Rachel spent the last of her summer in Lima before she headed back to Juilliard for the fall semester. Finn was slowly getting better. Before she left, he was able to walk around the block while Rachel pushed Beth in the stroller.

Summer passed into fall. Finn worked hard at his physical therapy and took four more courses on-line. He still couldn't pick Beth up, but every afternoon before naptime he read countless books to her on the couch. Rachel came home every Friday like she promised and brought Beth at least one new book.

One Friday, Rachel arrived in Lima in time to take Finn to a McKinley High School football game. It turned out to be homecoming night. "Do you remember Homecoming last year?" Rachel asked Finn.

"Yes," Finn said sadly. "It was the night that your mother died in that plane crash, and Beth became a bigger part of our lives."

"I always miss my mom, but I'll never regret adopting Beth. She was the one bright thing that came out of that tragedy," Rachel sighed sadly.

"No she wasn't," Finn corrected her. "You and I were married and we became our own little family. You know that our first anniversary is coming up this Thanksgiving don't you?"

"I haven't forgotten," Rachel smiled.

"I'm getting better, and I thought that Beth and I would try to come to New York to see you for a change. I've been talking to Sam and he's willing to come with me and help with Beth and the luggage. I would love for Beth to see Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Sam hasn't been to New York since our loss at Nationals."

"Have you talked this over with your doctors?" Rachel asked.

"Not yet, I wanted to talk to you first."

"If your doctors think that you're well enough to travel, then you know that I'm all for it," Rachel agreed.

Finn's doctors in Columbus, Ohio did let him make the trip with Sam's help. Rachel met them at the airport on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

It was the first time that Finn had seen the new apartment. It was a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms on the first floor of a newer building. Blaine and Kurt had the larger bedroom while Rachel had one of the smaller ones. That night Sam slept on the couch while Beth slept in the third bedroom in a pink toddler bed. Uncle Kurt had found it at a going out of business sale and surprised his niece with it.

After Beth was settled in for the night, Finn and Rachel went to bed together in a regular bed for the first time in months. Finn was standing with his back to Rachel folding the shirt that he had just taken off. Rachel walked up behinds him and ran her fingers over his scars.

"Rach, I'm sorry that I'm so scared up," Finn apologized.

"Please don't ever apologize for these scars. They remind me to be thankful that you're here with me, and that you're alive. We came so close to losing you, but you fought your way back to all of us," Rachel said softly.

"Okay, you have a deal. If the scars don't bother you, then they don't bother me," Finn said as he turned around to look into Rachel's eyes. "You know, I didn't bring any strawberries and chocolate, but I could forget to shave for a day or two and kiss you senseless."

"Do you remember that? Do you remember me trying to shave you in the hospital?"

"I remember the super serious look on your face, and the way you pushed my nose up so you could shave my upper lip," Finn laughed. "I thought you were going to bite your tongue off before you finished."

"Rach, I wish I could pick you up and lay you down on this bed, but the doctors won't even let me pick Beth up."

"It's okay, just crawl in and I'll crawl in beside you," Rachel said as she pulled the covers back.

Finn took off his blue jeans and crawled into the queen size bed. As he rolled over to face Rachel, he was surprised to see that she was doing her own little "strip-tease" for him.

"Are you up to it?" Rachel asked coyly.

"I've wanted to be able to make love to you for months, but you may have to do all of the work," Finn confessed as Rachel crawled in beside him.

"You did all the work on our wedding night, I think I can return the favor," Rachel said as she gave him one of many kisses to come that night.

The next morning Blaine, Rachel, and Sam were up early to take Beth see to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Kurt was staying home to fix the Thanksgiving feast with Finn's help. Monty was joining them for his first family Thanksgiving dinner in many years.

"Honestly Big Brother, how are you doing?" Kurt asked Finn after everyone else left for the parade.

"I'm getting better," Finn told Kurt. "I still have headaches from the concussion, but the neurologist says that should go away in time. I'm still limited to what I can do physically from the stab wound and the kidney damage, but that should get better too. It's a trade-off for being alive. I can live with it."

"Finn, I like your attitude, some people would have gotten bitter," Kurt told Finn.

"I have Rachel, Beth and all of my family and friends to thank for that," Finn smiled as he tried to dice the carrots the way that Kurt had shown him.

Monty arrived early for their Thanksgiving dinner with two pumpkin pies that he had asked Miss Sallie and Hannah to make for him.

After Kurt's multi-ethnical Thanksgiving feast they all settled down to watch football in the living room. Beth was tired from all of the excitement of the day and was zonked out in her toddler bed.

"You may have to take that toddler bed back with you on the plane," Kurt joked. "She seems to have fallen in love with it."

"I don't think I can carry Beth, and a bed, and a car seat onto the plane," Sam joked back.

"No, Beth's bed needs to stay here in New York. She'll need it when we come the next time. I would like to get all of the grandparents here over the holidays." Finn said as he held Rachel a little closer on the couch. "I know that Mom would love to see New York City at Christmas time."

And they all did make it to New York for the holidays that year. Hanukkah and Christmas didn't over lap in 2012 so they had Hanukkah with Rachel's family the week of December 8th and Christmas with Finn's family the week of December 25th.

When second semester began in January of 2013, Finn was able to be on campus and take almost a full load of courses. Rachel had finished her first semester at Juilliard with straight A's and was auditioning for parts in student productions. Her voice had already caught the attention of all of the professors in the vocal department.

Finn wasn't able to pick up tires and wheels so Burt had him working the front desk instead of in the pit. Burt said that having Finn or Sam up front was good for what he liked to call the "damsel in distress business." Burt had noticed that more young women like Santana and Brittany were bringing their cars in for service instead of letting their dad's do it. Rachel didn't like the idea, but Finn reassured her that he never took his wedding ring off.

When Beth's third birthday came in June, both Finn and Rachel had finished their freshmen years. Rachel stayed in New York that summer to be in an off- Broadway production of _Cats. _Rachel loved the part, but still felt a shiver each night when she sang _Memory_.

Finn kept working for Burt and picked up as many courses as he could on-line. The time passed quickly and soon Finn and Sam were walking across the community college stage with Associate in Arts degrees. They transferred to the Ohio State University at Lima campus that fall.

Sam and Finn continued their song writing collaboration. Finn wrote the lyrics and Sam set them to music. Soon they had nearly a dozen finished songs. Sam's dad had been a sound engineer when they lived in Nashville. He was helping Sam make connections with the right people in the Nashville music business.

Rachel was speeding though her course load at Juilliard. Her goal was to now graduate in three and a half years.

Rachel did graduate from Juilliard with honors in December of 2015. Finn had one more semester to go in Lima and Beth was half through her kindergarten year in elementary school. The plan was for Finn and Beth to join Rachel in New York in June. Blaine and Kurt would graduate in June, and they were moving to the garment district. Rachel, Finn, and Beth would have the three bedroom apartment all to themselves.

Sam and Finn got their first big song writing break just before Rachel graduated. A music producer in Nashville made a deal for two of their songs and was interested in more.

In December 2015 their families and extended family came to New York to watch Rachel graduate from Juilliard with honors. Five and a half year old Beth sat on Finn's lap and clapped when she saw her mommy cross the stage to accept her diploma.

Down below them in the rows of auditorium seats another young father was clapping as his wife crossed the auditorium stage. In his lap the man was holding a sleeping almost newborn baby dressed in light blue.

Beth turned to Finn and pointed to the sleeping baby. "Daddy, I want one of those for Christmas," Beth said directly to Finn.

"I want one of those too," Carole smiled at Beth and elbowed Finn's arm.

"You want a baby for Christmas? You'll have to talk to you mother about that," Finn whispered to Beth as they watched the last of the graduation ceremony.

Later that evening Hiram and Leroy took everyone out to dinner to celebrate Rachel's graduation before they all went back to the apartment. Finn and Rachel were sitting on the couch with Carole and Beth was on Finn's lap.

"Mommy, I saw what I want for Christmas today," Beth said to Rachel very seriously. "I want a baby."

"You want a baby doll? I thought that you wanted a puppy," Rachel asked.

"No, I want a real baby; I saw one at your graduation. I asked Daddy for one, but he said that I had to talk to you."

"Oh, you mean a baby brother or a baby sister. If you had your choice, would you prefer a little brother or a little sister?" Rachel asked Beth.

"A little sister," Beth answered quickly. "We could play dolls and dress up. Boys have cooties."

"I'm a boy, and I don't have cooties," Finn smiled at Beth.

Beth just blushed and tucked her head into Finn's shoulder.

"Beth, Mommy and Daddy can't give you a baby for Christmas, but have you ever heard of Christmas in July? We can give you a baby brother and a baby sister if you can wait until July," Rachel said to Beth.

Immediately Carole and everyone else in the room started counting months in their head.

"It's seven months until July! Are you telling us that you're pa-pa-pa- pregnant?" Carole stammered happily.

Rachel just nodded her head and started laughing.

"We didn't want to tell anyone until after Rachel's graduation, but we have the sonogram that our doctor took this week," Finn said handing the grainy picture to his mother.

Carole could see two shadowy figures that the doctor had outlined. On one side of the sonogram "Christopher Joseph (Chris) Hudson" was written with an arrow pointing to an outlined figure. On the other side "Carole Ann (Annie) Hudson" was written with another arrow pointing to the other grainy outlined image.

Pandemonium broke out in the apartment as a new wave of celebrating began.

"Two babies?" Kurt questioned Finn with a raised eyebrow.

"What can I say?" Finn beamed at Kurt with pride. "When you're good, you're good!"

July 15, 2016 was the due date, but Annie and Chris Hudson didn't wait that long for their debut.

Finn and Sam graduated from OSU at Lima in May, and Beth had her sixth birthday on June 8th. Finn and Beth were finally living in New York full time. They moved in as Blaine and Kurt were moving out. Carole came early to help out before the babies were born. Before dawn on July 7th, Rachel woke Finn up. "It's time," she said shaking Finn out of a sound sleep.

Finn was in a panic as he helped his laboring wife into the taxi. Carole stayed behind with the sleeping Beth. Around seven in the morning Finn called his mother to say that Rachel and the babies were doing fine, but it was going to be awhile. Rachel wanted Carole to go ahead and call her dads.

At 2:35 in the afternoon, Chris made his arrival. He had dark hair and eyes, and his crying was more like the mewing of a kitten. Annie was right behind him at 2:44. She was smaller, but had lungs that Finn swore you could hear all the way to Broadway.

Carole and Beth found Rachel and Finn in Rachel's hospital room later that evening. Rachel was feeding Annie, and Finn was rocking Chris.

"Look Beth," Finn said to his older daughter as he showed Chris to her. "You have a little brother and a little sister."

Beth's eyes grew big as she kissed her sleeping little brother on his forehead. Then she crawled up beside Rachel on the bed and took a good look at Annie.

"Merry Christmas in July," Rachel said as she cuddled Beth with her other arm. "You're a big sister now. Was this present worth the wait?"

"Oh yes!" Beth smiled as she let Annie wrap her tiny fingers around her own.

"Here Mom, have a look at your grandson," Finn said as he handed Chris to Carole.

"He looks just like you did when you were a baby," Carole said unable to hold back the happy tears any longer.

Two days later Finn took his family home. They were all together now. For four years Rachel had been in New York while Finn stayed behind in Lima for Beth, but the separation was now behind them.

Now that they were together their lives began to fall in place. Finn and Sam continued to collaborate on their song writing and the Evans/Hudson song writing team was gaining a foot hold in Nashville.

When the twins were six months old Rachel began auditioning again. She received her first on-Broadway part as an understudy to the female lead. She was also in a supporting role. Producers were taking notice, and soon they were asking Rachel to audition for them.

Life had come full circle. Rachel was fulfilling her dreams on Broadway. Finn and Sam were making it as song writers. Kurt was an apprentice at the Alexander McQueen fashion house, and Blaine had started law school at Columbia University.

Once again Finn was Mr. Mom, but he wouldn't have it any other way as he watched Rachel push seven year old Beth on the swings in Central Park. The twins were a year old now and taking their first steps. Finn's injuries were behind him, and he was able to carry Chris under one arm and Annie under the other as he pulled them both out of the sand box. It was just another day in paradise for Finn and Rachel as they watched Beth help Chris and Annie feed the ducks.

"We've come a long way Babe," Finn said to Rachel as they watched Beth mother the twins from their spot on their picnic blanket.

"We have, Mr. Hudson," Rachel said to Finn as she kissed him lightly on the lips. "But we have really just begun."

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The End. I hope that you have enjoyed reading "For the Love of Beth" and "All For the Love of Beth" as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Thank you to everyone for your awesome suggestions, opinions and feedback! Until my next story, please keep reviewing. Sincerely, Whistler Nights


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